How much does watching foreign movies/news without English subtitles help me in learning the language?

I think it helps a bunch. When I watch a movie in the language I'm learning, I try to stay very focused on the dialog. I try to catch every word. When I catch myself just making due with the general team of the dialog it's because my attention wandered. I'll back up the tape or DVD and start over. The mental activity level of the translation process takes so much concentration that I don't even enjoy the movie very much the first time through. This is because it's work concentrating and taking notes and looking up the words. By the 4th time through however, I can almost recite the dialog with the actors.

The movies to watch should be an action or comedy movie. It's much easier to get the idea of what is going on from the activity on screen. If they are smacking each other around it's not a going to be sweet-talk, right?

During the movie with remote control in hand, pause and write down words to learn, also repeat the dialog you know out loud but have difficulty with matching the pace/speed of delivery. I think mimicking the way the language is spoken by the people of that country is how you want to sound.

You eventually want to be able to understand the language right? You won't get there if you don't try to immerse yourself in it. So if you want to learn German and you are not in Germany you need to put that language into your environment and get used to hearing it. Get used to speaking it out loud. You won't get it just studying lists of words. I know from two years of Spanish back in high school.

Good Luck.

I would advise you to watch the movie in german with german subtitles. This will really help you to learn the spelling, the pronunciation, and will improve your vocabulary.

It can be very useful if you already know a reasonable vocabulary in that language. If you're a beginner, you're wasiting your time. You can't keep up fast enough to learn anything that way.