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ments from our readers, but there were<br />
Most Popular<br />
1. Rain Man<br />
2. Twins<br />
3. Naked Gun<br />
4. Working Girl<br />
5. Scrooged<br />
6. The Land Before Time<br />
7. Mississippi Burning<br />
8. Beaches<br />
9. Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels<br />
10. Young Guns<br />
Best Film<br />
1. Rain Man<br />
2. Mississippi Burning<br />
3. Working Girl<br />
4. The Accidental Tourist<br />
5. Gorillas in the Mist<br />
6. Dangerous Liaisons<br />
7. Twins<br />
8. Tequila Sunrise<br />
9. The Naked Gun<br />
10. Oliver & Co.<br />
lotte, N.C. "And 'Dead Ringers' was riveting.<br />
Jeremy Irons' performance was<br />
much too classy for the Academy's<br />
mundane tastes."<br />
'"Women on the Verge of a Nervous<br />
Breakdovirn' was a pleasant and unexpected<br />
surprise," raved Woody Bnmson,<br />
who works for Pacific Theatres in San<br />
Diego. "I thought 'The Beast' was in-<br />
also words of praise for some films credible and did not get the attention it<br />
which didn't find universal appeal last richly deserved," complains Thomas<br />
year. '"Torch Song Trilogy' was Newsom of TMT Management in Portland,<br />
touching, illuminating and memorable,"<br />
says F.M. Hough with Q-Notes in Char-<br />
Ore. '"Salaam Bombay!' made for<br />
riveting cinema, and 'Bird' was a complexly<br />
detailed film that was directed<br />
excellently by Clint Eastwood. The film<br />
ebbs and flows like a piece of modem<br />
jazz," enthuses Wendeslaus Schulz with<br />
Star Theatres in Bay St. Louis, Miss.<br />
And Ron Yardley, who keeps his eye<br />
on the movies while working for DHS,<br />
Inc., in San Diego, applauds a whole<br />
trend which he finds encouraging:<br />
"Hooray for Hollywood women! Four of<br />
the five films that I selected as having<br />
the highest aesthetic quality had women<br />
as their major headliners," he<br />
writes. "Only the wonderful Dustin<br />
Hoffman broke the string that the likes<br />
of Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Glenn<br />
Close and Sigoumey Weaver put together.<br />
Not long ago, no female — outside<br />
of Meryl Streep — could carry the<br />
weight of a movie on her shoulders.<br />
You've come a long way, lady!"<br />
Give The Grumblers Their Say<br />
Inevitably, however, there are those<br />
who thought that the closing months of<br />
1988 brought nothing but turkeys, and<br />
they're not happy about it. The common<br />
word in their complaints is "mediocre."<br />
"It was a very dull Christmas season,"<br />
reports T. Campion with Laemmle<br />
Theatres in Los Angeles. "There was little<br />
that really grabbed your attention,<br />
and there was a lot of mediocre product.<br />
It's enough to drive one to a video<br />
store."<br />
"There was not an impressive array<br />
[of films] to choose from," says James<br />
H. Atherton, a retired manager with<br />
Cineplex Odeon in Atlanta. "Mediocrity<br />
was more the rtile than the exception."<br />
"There were not many blockbusters<br />
last year; none, I would say. We need<br />
more good family, PG-rated shows,"<br />
says Bert Lee with Lee Theatres in Terry,<br />
Mont. "All of the films except<br />
"Twins' were standard, mediocre fare.<br />
They were the kinds of movies that we<br />
used to use as 'fill-ins' between hits.<br />
There are no hits today," observes D.<br />
Farber, who works for Cinema Designs<br />
in Livingston, Mont. Michael Chamberlin<br />
with Cineplex Odeon's Marketplace<br />
Six in Bowie, Md., concurs, adding:<br />
"Nothing in '88 could equal the greatness<br />
of last year's 'The Last Emperor' or<br />
'Broadcast News' There were no grept<br />
films last year, just some very good<br />
ones, piled in with mediocrity."<br />
"The movies that you listed are some<br />
of the worst selections 1 have seen in<br />
years. Couldn't Hollywood do any better?"<br />
asks Martin Stringfellow with Reel<br />
Theatres in Richfield, Utah. "The presidential<br />
race was just as exciting to<br />
choose from." Obviously, it was not a<br />
kinder, gentler year at the movies for<br />
Mr. Stringfellow.<br />
A Summation<br />
Finally, C.W. Rose, who is employed<br />
by Floyd Theatres in Lakeland, Fla.,<br />
offers an observation which, in its simplicity<br />
and eloquence, could threaten<br />
Jack Valenti as the most articulate<br />
spokesperson on the film industry:<br />
"All films were great; [although]<br />
some [were] a little better than others."<br />
Amen.<br />
Mi
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