About Mr Hull's Movie Guides

Hi, I'm Samuel.

I'm a British teacher who has been living in Central Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia for the past 16 years. I'm married with eleven-year-old twin daughters, and Mr Hull's Movie Guides has been my passion project since 2017.

I started the store with a simple idea: that movies deserve to be taught properly. Not just shown as a reward or a time-filler, but used as genuine teaching tools with structured activities that give students something to do and teachers something to assess. Since then it has grown to 390+ guides, more than 3,000 reviews, and a community of teachers I genuinely never expected.

This blog exists for teachers who are still deciding. If you are not sure which movie to show, or you did not know a guide existed for it, this is the place to start.

Experience

Mr Hull's Movie Guides was established in 2017. I'm an English teacher from the UK formerly teaching at a school in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. I taught ESL to grades 4-11 for ten years. In addition to teaching I was also the teacher coordinator at the school working closely with the principal, and helped plan and maintain the teaching timetables.

I would often create movie guides for my classes to elevate the students' learning experience, and inspire them to think further and deeper about other topics. In addition, watching popular movies also motivates them to learn and practice English and keeps them fully engaged, especially if the movie is enjoyable to watch with fun learning activities attached.

In addition to this, watching movies sets a creative open space for follow-up activities such as creative writing, discussions, news articles, debates on social issues, role plays, reconstructing a dialogue or summarising + many more. Many of which are included in my movie guides.

Also there are a huge number of movies that have been adapted from books which allow for book to movie comparisons, or simply as a reward for finishing the book. All the while still having an educational element attached.

Teaching Style

When I teach, I try to make my classroom a dynamic, hands-on environment where English is lived rather than just studied. I believe students learn best when they are relaxed and engaged, so I infuse humour into my lessons to lower barriers. The goal is for students to become so immersed in the activities that they forget they are "learning English" and simply start communicating.

Critical thinking and real-world application are at the heart of my lessons. I try (as much as possible) to connect every concept to the world outside the classroom; education, to me, is not only about academics but also about building character, empathy, and strong values that help students live meaningful lives.

My aim is to lead by example and recognise that each student is unique, with individual strengths and challenges. Together, we build a classroom community that feels like a family, supporting one another, staying accountable, and growing both as learners and as people.