Plainbellied's recent post on movie remakes made me think of a related issue: subtitles on foreign films. There are a number of different opinions on this issue. Some people prefer dubbing because it means they don't have to read the bottom of the screen to know what's going on. Others prefer subtitles because they want to hear the cadence of the people speaking. For example, watch "Life is Beautiful" in Italian, then try it in English. Roberto Benigni's delivery really makes the film in a lot of ways, and the dubbed English version is a tragedy.
Personally, I prefer subtitles unless it's an action movie or something where I feel they will be too distracting. I get the feeling I'm missing something when I watch dubbed films. Sometimes, if a film has bad audio, we'll put on the subtitles anyway. That's one great thing about DVDs--you can change the audio or subtitle track to what you want. One fun thing to do is to compare the subtitles with the dubbed dialogue. Often they don't match up. It's pretty funny.
I really like watching kung fu movies. They translate all of the special moves each fighter is known for directly, so you get things like the "Flying crane maneuverable death kick" and the "Buddha palm hurricane fist." I think that's fun.
When I watching Spanish films with my wife, I tend to critique their translations. She gets tired of hearing things like, "That's not quite what he said." I'm naturally a know-it-all.
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