In 1968, moviegoers had a lot more choices before blockbuster fever took over

Remember the fable about frogs in a pot of water, oblivious to the temperature slowly changing from tepid to boiling until it's too late? The same thing is true for critics, except it's not water we're immersed in, it's movies.

Because we deal with hundreds and hundreds of films, one 12-month period to the next, it's hard to tell what's different about any given year or even compare one decade to the next. Was 2017 a better year than 2016? Four months into 2018, it's hard to say.

But 50 years,