PERSONAL FAVORITES : A Film Critic’s Dream Screens

YOU CAN turn the most curmudgeonly people lyrical simply by asking about the movie theaters of their youth. They might have doubled for that fly-specked wreck in “The Last Picture Show,” but memory turns our first theaters into palaces. Well, today’s moviegoers won’t need to exaggerate. We have real palaces among us, the sort to launch fantasies well into the 21st Century.

At the Crest in Westwood, seen at left, state-of-the-art equipment is a given. But the Disney theme-park gang, Imagineering, has turned the theater magical with a star field in the ceiling, a panoramic mural of old Hollywood and the Westwood of beloved memory, and heavy double curtains that part before the screen. The showmanship reportedly cost a million dollars. Looks it.

Is Best Mall a contradiction in terms? Not when you’re measuring movie theaters. That honor goes to the AMC Century 14 in Century City, with six big screens, eight small ones and those thoughtful gizmos to keep your soft drink on your seat arm. All this, 70 mm and THX sound, too.

Real picture-palace junkies have to make the pilgrimage to the Arlington in Santa Barbara. An atrium gives way to a towering foyer, and all around, at balcony level, is a frieze of little buildings glowing with light.

The refurbished Royal is a joy for the art movie-house set. The loges are sybaritic, the sound is Dolby, and the new decor is rich and handsome.

Other nominations: The Rialto in South Pasadena: best popcorn; the Samuel Goldwyn Pavilion Cinemas: most comfortable seats; the Showcase on La Brea: fine restoration; the Cineplex Odeon Fairfax: best tri-plex.