Merry Christmas and happy new year to all.

Your humble Smallholder doesn’t get to the movies much.

Kids.

You know how it is.

But Mrs. Smallholder and I have managed to catch two over the holidays - The Good Shepherd and Casino Royale.

I have to tell you, some of the action sequences in Casino Royale were just awesome. Woo and hoo. Go spend eight bucks for the action alone. The plot? Not so good. Stupid, actually. Whatever happened to good action flicks that actually have a plot that makes sense? Perhaps one day historians will look back on this and label it the Swordfish era.

The Good Shepherd had some good parts as well, but once again, elements of the plot were lacking. What I found most intriguing was the portrayal of Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University. The Good Shepherd, ostensibly a movie about the founding of the CIA, takes on an umistakable homoeroticism when the Bonesmen are on the stage. Who knew that an organization that counts Presidents among its ranks could be so thoroughly, thoroughly queer.

Dang, it almost makes me wish I knew someone who had been in the organization so that I could give him crap.

Heh.