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 ... .)

I’m not even sure what to say at this point, besides thank God summer’s over. It has been quite an ordeal, and I suppose it’s only fitting that that the season goes out on a grossly disappointing note involving a sub-par sequel. Now we’ve just got to contend with that uneasy transitional period between the summer and fall movie seasons, and we may actually have some good movies to talk about. I’m waiting with breath that is bated.

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.

It has occurred to me that I discuss my personal goings-on a bit less than my fellow News-Sentinel columnists do, but in the interest of partial disclosure, I must confess that life has gotten significantly more difficult for me in the past few months. I’ve started a new job that requires many long, grueling, thankless hours in an undesirable environment. The possibility of complete physical and mental collapse is now very real.

As evidenced by this week‘s review, the quality of new wide releases appears to be dipping again — a definite disappointment, considering how strong the year started off.

Quite unexpectedly, the first couple months of 2012 continue to offer some quality choices for discriminating movie-goers.

Technical complications at the “Haywire” screening I attempted to attend have left me without a film to review this week (we’ll catch up with that one next time, along with the Liam Neeson survival thriller “The Grey”). But this is just as well, I suppose, considering that the recent Oscar nominations have inspired more controversy than I’ve ever seen associated with the Academy Awards, and of course I have some choice thoughts about that.

Typically, I spend the first six weeks or so of each new year playing catch-up with all the Oscar bait that was released around Christmas. But as it turns out this awards season didn’t produce as many true prestige pictures as expected, so starting next week we’ll be returning to new releases with a look at Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed action flick “Haywire,” followed by a review of the Liam Neeson vs. wolves survival thriller “The Grey” (I’ll also briefly return to the 2011 awards contenders with a piece on “The Artist,” if it ever opens in the Lodi-Stockton area).

Hope you all enjoyed my top 10 list last week, and gleaned some useful recommendations. This week I’ll take a very quick look at “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” which made my “most promising films I didn’t see” list but ended up being one of the most spirit-crushing disappointments of the year. I honestly don’t have much to say about such an empty film, so I suppose I might as well squeeze in my predictions for the Oscar nominations, set to be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at which point you will surely marvel at my peerless prognosticative abilities.

Times like these, you have to seek comfort wherever you can find it. I often look to movies for some extra degree of solace, and it seems that sometimes it can be found in the unlikeliest of places.

In the past week, Lodi has received three times more rain than normal, causing everyone to pull out their rain coats and farmers to worry about how some of their crops are faring.

Weather forecasters predict a monster storm to hit the area today and last through the weekend, bringing power outages, localized flooding and falling trees.

The North San Joaquin district was created in 1948 and applied for a permanent water supply from the Mokelumne River.

Lodi's TV personality Jeff Sutherland is known for his SJTV program, "Jeff's Star Talk," but he is now taking on the role of Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello onstage. With his new acting partner, Dennis Wayne "D.W." Landingham, the comedy duo is reinventing hilarious vaudeville skits including "Who's on First Base" with their new act, "Abbott and Costello Lives."

As Oliver Hardy often said to Stan Laurel, "What a fine mess you've got us in."

A proposal to pull water from the Sacramento River might help replenish the depleted groundwater basin in eastern San Joaquin County — groundwater on which many homes and businesses rely.

A proposal to pull water from the Sacramento River might help replenish the depleted groundwater basin in eastern San Joaquin County - groundwater on which many homes and businesses rely.