As I was walking out of seeing “The Raid: Redemption” back in April, I overheard a man angrily say to the cashier at the box office, “I didn’t pay to read that movie.” Such a sentence is one of the single most insufferable things I’ve heard come out of a person’s mouth at a theater, and the numerous times I’ve heard it makes it even worse. I’ve seen people try to get refunds when coming out of a foreign language film (or the recent silent film “The Artist”), feeling they were cheated or tricked into seeing a movie that wasn’t in English. Most American moviegoers dislike foreign films, for reasons ranging from “I don’t want to read subtitles” to even considering it unpatriotic to watch one. It’s sad, really, because when you close yourself off to foreign films and only watch what’s made in America, you’re losing access to a huge portion of some of the most creative and interesting films being made today.

This year alone, a few great titles like “Sound of Noise,” “Headhunters,” “The Intouchables,” and more have come from overseas and proved to be some of the best films this year. Most importantly, these aren’t stuffy dramas that the average moviegoer may associate foreign films with. “The Raid” for example is one of the best action movies I’ve seen in ages, going full-throttle at an intense pace, with practically non-stop action scenes that leave you out of breath with your heart racing. However, because the movie was in Indonesian (for the very few dialogue scenes) “The Raid” was barely seen, outside of the small crowd of film lovers like myself, and thus made very little money.

So why do people dislike watching foreign movies? On a basic level, some might consider subtitles distracting. You do have to refocus for a moment and read the words instead of what’s happening onscreen, but that only takes a split second. It isn’t that big of a deal after the first few minutes of the film, once you adjust, but some people just can’t handle a little work in the opening scenes.

The one idea though, that needs to be scourged from the face of the planet, is dubbing. If subtitles slightly disrupt the art the filmmaker has created, dubbing is a full on massacre. I showed a group of my friends “The Raid” at home, and when I hit play, the movie was great…until the point where a character spoke, and all the sound changed to allow an actor to record the line in English. That jarring transition happened every single line, until I couldn’t take it anymore and switched the film to subtitles. It’s bad enough that over-dub was the default setting for the film, but all my friends moaned at the thought of reading subtitles and watching the film in its original form.

However, foriegn language isn’t the only thing scares people away from foriegn films. American viewers may also be turned off by a culture that differs from theirs. “Thirteen Assassins” is an amazing foreign film with a massive action set piece that lasts the final 45 minutes and is miles better than anything out of the “Transformers” franchise. However, the high density of Japanese culture may throw the typical American moviegoer. However just like reading subtitles, you settle into it.

It’s also interesting to look at how the filmmakers themselves react to an unenthusiastic foreign film crowd. Writer/director Guillermo del Toro was a fairly big talent in America when he made the film, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” a dark Spanish fairytale of sorts that I especially love for its wild and creative visuals. del Toro had previously directed high-profile films like “Hellboy” and “Blade II” and built the name of having a fairly big talent in America. But hen many companies offered del Toro a hefty budget to shoot “Pan’s Labyrinth” in English, he decided on a smaller amount from other financiers to make it in Spanish, claiming that he didn’t want the story, set in 1944 Spain, to be in English and feel fake.

Bryan Singer’s “Valkyrie” is a film that ended up suffering from just that. The film is set in Germany during World War II, centering on a failed attempt to assasinate Hitler. The film opens with Tom Cruise speaking German, but within esconds the dialect fades into English. The rest of the film remains English, without even a pathetic attempt from Cruise at a German accent. Because of the obvious culture shock, the film really suffers from being made in English.

Of course, what it really does come down to is: is the movie good? I’m not here to make an argument that we should make all films in Swedish or add subtitles to every movie, I just find it sad how few people (not just Americans) pay attention to films coming from other countries. There are so many quality films out there, from every corner of the globe. Whether you’re an action junkie or costume drama lover, I guarantee you there are tons of films you’ll love if exercise the minimal brain power it takes to watch a foreign movie.