Aguilar, Bailee Alice, a girl, born Feb. 15 to Aaron and Jennifer Aguilar of Lodi.

2012 has been widely hailed as an exceptional year for film, but I’m at a loss as to where all these great films are supposed to be. (But then, if we’ve lowered our standards of “greatness” to the point that something like “Silver Linings Playbook” is being proclaimed as a masterwork ... .)

Happy holidays to one and all! It’s getting to be the most wonderful time of the year, and one of the most wonderful things about it is the bevy of movie options that typically grace us during the last couple months of the year.

You may have noted that last week’s review of “The Dark Knight Rises” lacked any mention of the tragedy in Aurora, Colo. This was not meant as a show of disrespect to the victims, but as recognition that regardless of its now-infamous status, Christopher Nolan’s concluding Batman film deserved to be discussed on its own merits, as a movie — not as the alleged trigger that set off a madman’s rampage.

This week’s review of “The Dark Knight Rises” comes a little later than I had initially hoped, but oh well — it’s never too late to spread good news. And I advise you to enjoy the good times while they last, because the rest of the summer looks pretty dicey.

I fancy myself a halfway intelligent person, but I always seem to make the most head-smackingly stupid mistakes. A “for instance” would be the fact that I didn’t realize the News-Sentinel had an early deadline for the Fourth of July holiday, and found myself prepping for a late screening of “Magic Mike” as I discovered that the Lodi Living section was getting ready to go to press. It seems my stupidity knows no bounds.

Here is the list of Lodi High School graduates for 2012:

The summer movie season is now underway, ushered in by the record-smashing debut of the long-awaited “Avengers” movie — surely the first of many, considering the truly remarkable box office receipts this juggernaut has generated in a very short time.

PERSIS LEDBETTER

A memorial service for Persis Seiferling Ledbetter, 88, of Lodi, who died Dec. 19, 2011, will be held at 3 p.m. today at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist, with Rev. Harold Clinehans Jr. and Rev. Anne Smith officiating.

“In Time.” “The Three Musketeers.” “Footloose.” “Johnny English Reborn.” These are among the films now playing in multiplexes across the country. I find this roster to be strange and unsettling, as I have apparently been laboring under the misapprehension that we were supposed to be smack-dab in the middle of awards season. Silly me.

The summer movie season, after a horrifyingly dull couple of months, may come to a decent close after all. The impeccably written and acted “Horrible Bosses” will be around for a few more weeks (catch it if you haven’t, or face my ire), and the final “Harry Potter” recently opened to great audience approval.

Sometimes — not often, but sometimes — I see a movie so completely worthless that I wish I could dispense with a full review and simply say something like, “‘Larry Crowne’ should be avoided on the grounds that it is stupid, and also Julia Roberts is a hag.’” It’s simple, succinct and tells you everything you need to know.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, we won’t be getting a look at “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” this week or any other week, for that matter, as I’ve gotto  put my foot down somewhere. I’m still suffering some lingering ill effects from “Revenge of the Fallen,” and I simply can’t risk exposure to any more of Michael Bay’s lame BS.

No review of “The Green Lantern” this week. I read from a trusted source that the movie is equivalent to a self-serious episode of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” in which Meatwad’s ability to transform himself into a hot dog or an igloo enables him to save the galaxy. That description —combined with the fact that the movie has been universally panned — made my decision to focus on more relevant issues this week pretty easy. Check back next time for a look at “Cars 2” — reportedly the first sub-par Pixar film, but at least it’s gotta be better than “The Green Lantern.”

Steven Spielberg has been producing films for more than 30 years now, and it is becoming increasingly unclear what, exactly, the Spielberg production credit means at this point. In 1982, with “Poltergeist,” it meant that he essentially ghost-directed the film, by all credible accounts. Decades and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the man seems to be slapping his name on anything he can get his hands on, with little to no concern for the actual quality of the production. (“Eagle Eye,” anyone? I thought not.)

We’re almost halfway through 2011, and so far this has got to be the most mediocre year for film in recent memory. Thus far, we have not seen many outright terrible movies — no more than in any other year, anyway. But it seems like every week brings yet another film that toes that uneasy line between the barely passable and the outright unacceptable — movies like “Fast Five” and “Thor” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” which are too intermittently entertaining to be called “bad,” but too lethargic and by-the-numbers to truly be worth your time and money.

Here is the list of Galt High School graduates for 2011:

Kenneth Branagh’s hotly anticipated “Thor” is the first of the year’s would-be summer blockbusters, and it ushers in the season not with the thunderous bang we were all expecting, but a timid whimper.

I should have listened. For the past few weeks, everyone who’s caught a glimpse of Zack Snyder’s much-anticipated would-be magnum opus “Sucker Punch” has been screaming from the rooftops about how indescribably horrible it is, but here’s the thing: I didn’t think it was logistically possible for a filmmaker of Snyder’s caliber to release a truly bad movie -- let alone one that warranted the mounting calls for him to be drawn and quartered for his crimes against cinema. I assumed they were a bunch a fuddy-duds who lacked the hipness to share in Snyder’s singular vision. So despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, the Snyder fanboy boy whispered into my ear, “Come and see.” And I saw.

It’s that time of year again — a time for victors to be showered in glory, for losers to be mocked and ostracized, and for creative artists to cheapen their craft by taking part in the ridiculous circus that we call the Academy Awards. 

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had much of an interest in movies this week, as I’ve been spending most of my down-time enjoying some imported Venezuelan rum while I watch the world come apart at the seams on CNN. Violent clashes, Anderson Cooper getting attacked by a mob, and maniacs on horses and camels ransacking the streets of Cairo? Far more riveting than any moviegoing experience I can think of.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. Although I submitted my year-end top 10 list several weeks ago, it shall have to be amended to include one of 2010’s truly brilliant works: “Blue Valentine,” a powerful deconstruction of a failed marriage that serves as a showcase for not only Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, its bright and talented young stars, but also for Derek Cianfrance, a new director making his feature debut. (It would have come in at No. 5, for those keeping track).

I’ll continue to do my best catching up with some late 2010 releases while we wait for the new year to really get going. So in that vein we’ve got a brief look at the awards-season favorite “The Fighter,” along with my predictions for this year’s Oscar nominations. Completely meaningless, but kinda fun.

I  spent much of 2010 bemoaning the sad state of Hollywood studio filmmaking. But looking over a roster of the year’s most worthwhile releases, it struck me that it might not have been such a bad year after all. If you’re simply looking at the number of good films released, then 2010 was certainly not one for the books — but if you focus on the quality of the very best releases, few as they may have been, things start to look a bit different.

Back with a proper review this week, although we’ll also delve into all that fun auteurism stuff again. Next week, I’ll take a look at “Paranormal Activity 2” just in time for Halloween. (It strikes me as a completely unnecessary cash-in sequel to a film that was perfect as a stand-alone, but there’s always a slim chance the filmmakers learned from last decade’s “Blair Witch 2” fiasco, and ensured that their movie augments an established mythos instead of, you know, taking a giant dump on it.