Movies you've recently watched

[Neil]

Why couldn't he still be in high school on the show?

Because the actor is over 30.

Most people in high school on TV shows are almost or in their 30s.

BTW:  Judge Dredd is a great movie.  Fuck all of you.

[Queequeg]

In the Loop.

Great, but need time to digest.  Reminded me of Dr. Strangelove in some respects, especially as it seems like an insanely amusing comedy with other people and a very, very dark drama without people, though a part of that may be that the person I was watching it with left at the halfway mark. 

Who is the spinner, the Scotsman?  He wasn't in Local Hero by any chance?

[katmai]

In the Loop.

Great, but need time to digest.  Reminded me of Dr. Strangelove in some respects, especially as it seems like an insanely amusing comedy with other people and a very, very dark drama without people, though a part of that may be that the person I was watching it with left at the halfway mark. 

Who is the spinner, the Scotsman?  He wasn't in Local Hero by any chance?

Yes he was the young assistant in LH.

[Tamas]

Dubbing of movies in Hungarian theaters is on the decline, luckily, but from very high levels.

You know the worst phase for this pre-cinema, during the haydays of nationalism, late 19th century, early 20th. FFS they even translated names of famous writes. Like to this day, Jules Verne is often called "Verne Gyula"

[Duque de Bragança]

Dubbing of movies in Hungarian theaters is on the decline, luckily, but from very high levels.

You know the worst phase for this pre-cinema, during the haydays of nationalism, late 19th century, early 20th. FFS they even translated names of famous writes. Like to this day, Jules Verne is often called "Verne Gyula"

Not a Hungarian exclusive if you ask me. I remember reading Jean Hunyade - in old history books. (Iancu de Hunedoara for the Romanians )

As for cinemas, living in Paris meant there would be no dubbed versions for some movies  e.g Baader-Meinhof-Komplex and original version cinemas far outnumbering dubbed stuff.

Even the province has improved in that aspect from what I've heard.

[Josquius]

I find the way the big European companies dub really odd, as I understand they tend to have one famous actor from the destination country doing all the voices for another American actor in all his films so you have the 'French Bruce Willis' and the like.
I've mentioned this before but this led to one amusing situation a few years ago; watched some film with Keanu Reeves in it with a group of friends, one of whom was a German girl who had a crush on him. As soon as he opened his mouth though she practically screamed 'OMG, thats not his voice, is this a joke? Thats such a ugly voice!' and so the love died.

[Syt]

Indeed, most "big names" in cinema have a (more or - more frequently - less) known actor dubbing them. Mel Gibson and Ben Kingsley have voices pretty close to the original, so do the Simpsons (except for Homer for some reason). Bruce Willis' German voice is nothing like the original.

Overall, I'd say the German dubbing had its heyday in the 60s/70s. Some British series which failed in the original were uplifted to cult status by humorous and sometimes even improvised dubbing. Spagghetti westerns and Bud Spencer/Terence Hill are also rather well dubbed and watchable in German. In the 80s/90s the quality dropped sharply.

[Martinus]

Dubbing of movies in Hungarian theaters is on the decline, luckily, but from very high levels.

You know the worst phase for this pre-cinema, during the haydays of nationalism, late 19th century, early 20th. FFS they even translated names of famous writes. Like to this day, Jules Verne is often called "Verne Gyula"

We have: William Szekspir. 

[DisturbedPervert]

In Europe do they really have enough dubbers that everyone has their own voice?  Or is Bruce Willis also Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Cera or whatever?

[The Larch]

The Spanish version of Kubrick's "The Shining" is particulary grating to watch dubbed, because of the voice actors. Kubrick chose a Spanish big name director to manage the dubbing, and supervised the translation, selection of voice actors (which were "real" well known actors and not professional dubbers). The result is really awful, and makes the movie almost unwatchable.

[The Larch]

In Europe do they really have enough dubbers that everyone has their own voice?  Or is Bruce Willis also Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Cera or whatever?

In Spain there's a big-ish pool of voice actors available, but it's not unusual to get the same dubber doing more than one actor, although as it has been said most big names have a well established dubber that does their voice.

For instance, over here the same guy (the Spanish James Earl Jones, so to speak) used to dub Ahnuld, Clint Eastwood and Darth Vader. And he's awesome.

[Duque de Bragança]

Indeed, most "big names" in cinema have a (more or - more frequently - less) known actor dubbing them. Mel Gibson and Ben Kingsley have voices pretty close to the original, so do the Simpsons (except for Homer for some reason). Bruce Willis' German voice is nothing like the original.

Overall, I'd say the German dubbing had its heyday in the 60s/70s. Some British series which failed in the original were uplifted to cult status by humorous and sometimes even improvised dubbing. Spagghetti westerns and Bud Spencer/Terence Hill are also rather well dubbed and watchable in German. In the 80s/90s the quality dropped sharply.

Like the Persuaders for instance, I suppose ?
More or less what happened for France, but I would add that till the '80s at least, euro cinema/tv relied a lot on post-sync with monaural soundtracks so the loss of audio quality wasn't felt that much since there wasn't much to begin with (voices mixed upfront weren't as noticeable).

Low-cost, "professional dubbers" led to a sharp decrease in quality, specially for cartoons/anime etc.

Syt:
Derrick's first French voice was pretty close to the original but then the actor/dubber died and they gave him a much older sounding voice which made Derrick the butt of lots of jokes in France and krimis in general. Horst Tappert ageing did not help as well.

FYI, the first dubber also voiced very well a cult Japanese '70s cartoon (pre anime era), the ones that infuriated Ségolènes back in the day. 

[Alatriste]

In Europe do they really have enough dubbers that everyone has their own voice?  Or is Bruce Willis also Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Cera or whatever?

In Spain there's a big-ish pool of voice actors available, but it's not unusual to get the same dubber doing more than one actor, although as it has been said most big names have a well established dubber that does their voice.

For instance, over here the same guy (the Spanish James Earl Jones, so to speak) used to dub Ahnuld, Clint Eastwood and Darth Vader. And he's awesome.

And Sean Connery too

Oddly enough - or not - many persons refuse to believe it when they are told. I have a friend that needed a blind test to convince him James Bond and Dirty Harry were dubbed by the same man. And he really sounds different... i.e. he doesn't simply read his lines, *he* *acts* with his voice, deeper and coarser when he's Dirty Harry, softer and wittier when he's 007... 

Dubbing can be a problem sometimes. For example, Hal 9000 dubber was very competent, but the voice evidently belongs to an older man, which somehow changes the story for me. In English Hal 9000 if anything sounds younger than Dave Bowman and Frank Poole, in Spanish he sounds like he could be their father...

[Syt]

Syt:
Derrick's first French voice was pretty close to the original but then the actor/dubber died and they gave him a much older sounding voice which made Derrick the butt of lots of jokes in France and krimis in general. Horst Tappert ageing did not help as well.

We had something like that with Gert-Günther Hoffmann in Germany: he was the German voice of Cpt. Kirk and Sean Connery, and both his Bond and Kirk are tongue in cheek masterpieces. His dubbing went perfectly well with the "I can't hear you over how awesome I am" pic of Kirk, though it was also self-ironic.

Hoffmann died, and Connery got a new voice (first in "Entrapment", I think), closer to the original, but lacking the wittiness.

Persuaders is the prime example; the dubbers frequently broke the forth wall on that one. The last show I recall with improvised dubbing like that was, oddly, "Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs" which had a surreal quality to it.

[The Larch]

Found this pic in wiki regarding dubbing in Europe. Blue is subtitles, red is dubbing, yellow is voice over.