The worst pan-n-scan job I've ever seen was on Wild Things. The fake pans during the threesome were hysterical.

The full-screen version of The Graduate (to redeem what's left of my film cred after just having admitted to seeing Wild Things) has such obvious panning and scanning that the AMMI uses it in their "What is Pan & Scan?" exhibit. (The shot that they use is a gorgeous two-shot of Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft talking to each other, each in close-up profile on opposite sides of the screen. The full-screen version pans back and forth between them, utterly ruining the effect.)

The full-screen version pans back and forth between them, utterly ruining the effect.

I've seen that cited a lot, but again never saw it fullscreen. If you didn't know that pan and scan existed, would it still be egregious, or is it "merely" ruining a beautiful shot?

I've never seen the whole movie fullscreen either, so I'm not sure. My guess is that it probably wouldn't stand out from the rest of the panning and scanning, but you might be left wondering why people think this is such a good-looking film.

When they framed The Outsiders they made it so more than one fullscreened conversation involves half-eyeballs. Distracting.

Speaking of Wild Things, I noticed this in IMDB's trivia section for it:

Director John McNaughton says he deleted a scene that would have shown 'Dillon, Matt' and Kevin Bacon showering together, as it was gratuitous.

Yeah, because they sure were concerned about making sure nothing gratuitous made it to the final cut. Good looking out, BASTARDS.

Yeah! Whatever happened to equal-opportunity gratuitous nudity?

Yeah. The threesome scene was brilliantly gratutious (and is, as far as I'm concerned, the only excuse for Denise Richard's presence in ANY movie), but chicks should have had something to ogle, too.

and is, as far as I'm concerned, the only excuse for Denise Richard's presence in ANY movie

I thought she was great in Undercover Brother. She plays a good parody of herself.

I know everyone else saw Eternal Sunshine ages ago, but I just saw it tonight. Overall, I liked it, but I had been told to expect something great. After the movie, I started talking about it with my friend who saw it with me. I was saying that, while I liked the movie, I was unable to find its theme. She said she thought it was just supposed to be about memory. I wanted it to say something about memory.

I guess my thought was that if I was going to make a giant movie, I would want it to be a) entertaining, b) meaningful, or ideally c) both. I thought ES was entertaining and meaningful, but not as much as I expected.

"Millenium Falcon, yes. Stagecoach better."

-Joss Whedon

Just got it from my local public library, and had no trouble at all watching it. Stagecoach that is. Gorgeous photography, a big damn movie star, and a great ensemble--esp. Claire Trevor and Thomas Mitchell. Conflict from within, Apache threat hanging over all.

I would so like to see this in a proper movie theatre with a balcony and a live organist between features.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit has horrible pan-and-scanning, noticed by me who never saw the original. Then again, the movie began with a "Filmed in Cinemascope!" thing, so maybe that's why I noticed it. However, it was bad enough to merit discussion as we talked about the film in the class I watched it in.

(Don't see the movie. It's pretty dumb.)