bh_tafe3 In the late 90s a lot of supposedly mysterious themes were explored in movies. Urban Legends, ghosts, nuclear power, vampires, the list goes on. In the Skulls, teen movies decide to take a look at secret societies.The film stars Joshua Jackson as Luke McNamara, a young rower who wants to study for a law degree. But as a poor townie, it's going to be an uphill struggle to finish, unless a secret society known as the Skulls decides to make him a member.Of course they do make him a member. The first thing we learn about secret societies is that they endorse the buddy system, and Luke is paired with Caleb Mandrake (the late Paul Walker), a boxer. Luke's room mate Will, decides it would achieve something to break into The Skulls secret chamber, and does so. Sadly all it achieves in doing is annoying Caleb, who pushes Will down a ledge, knocking him out. Caleb's father and Skulls big-wig Judge Litten (Craig. T. Nelson) tells his son he'll take care of it and orders some subordinates to kill Will and make it look like a hanging.Luke is pretty shaken up about his friend's death, but not as shaken up as Caleb, who believes he killed the man. The rest of the movie is pretty much Luke working out what happened to his friend with help from another senior Skull Senator Ames Everitt (CSI's William L. Peterson), and love interest Chloe (Leslie Bibb). The ending is pretty satisfying without delivering anything unexpected.The Skulls is a bit ridiculous at times, but it does work reasonably well in its own right. There's enough going on to keep you interested and the performers are all invested enough in the story to put out a sincere product. It is very much a product of its time, but fans of the era should check it out if they are looking for a trek down nostalgia lane. Not essential viewing by any means, but worth checking out if it comes on cable.

videorama-759-859391 Here's another totally refreshing flick for 2000 that joined Final Destination and a few other films. Certainly something different, (I know I say that a lot) here's one quite intriguing. Secret societies do exist, I'm convinced of that. The boosted up take on this one, makes it a dangerously super exciting flick. An elected and privileged few on campus students, who are part of this secret society, known as the skulls, their logo, literally branded on the hand, can have anything their heart desires, hot flashy woman, elite women, and big balances in their ATM, only it comes with a price. Luke McNamara (Joshua "Dawson's Creek" Jackson, stepping up into film with the lead role) is one of those few, where soon his close room mates and friends, who are becoming distanced from him, caution him earlier, on the dangers of this infamous group, especially his male buddy, who's pretty suss, and ultimately pays with his own life, later, while doing some snooping around. The performances are genuinely are good in this, notably Craig T Nelson, one of the founders of the society, and William L Petersen, a southern mayor and willing member, where soon as the movie enters more dramatic states, where questions need to be answered. Paul Walker isn't too bad either as Craig T Nelson's troubled and schooled son, bossed around by his father, where he befriends Jackson, in a so so, but spirited performance, where a very dramatic standoff ending ensues, it's all so seriously thrilling, and that's what The Skulls is. It's another product of new styled films, we need, as we drift into the millennium, as this impressive pic, bound of course to spawn sequels, does us proud. Go see it.

zardoz-13 "The Skulls" qualifies as bone-headed Hardy Boys hokum. This sophomoric suspense thriller about a covert society at an anonymous Ivy League University that grooms handpicked undergraduates as tomorrow's titans lacks both subtlety and suspense. As a Mafia-style fraternal organization, The Skulls remains so hush-hush that its elite members have created their own book of rules, and those rules supersede the rule of law. This clandestine clique rewards their chosen few with fast sports cars, loose willing women, and fist-sized bankrolls. Ultimately, "The Skulls" preaches that neither wealth nor power is worth forfeiting either for your freedom or dismantling your morality.Although he is a financially-strapped, blue-collar orphan that works several jobs to pay his tuition, Lucas McNamara (Joshua Jackson of TV's "Dawson's Creek") finds himself thrust into the limelight when he leads the school's sculling team to its third championship.On the basis of Lucas's superb athletic skills, the Skulls recruit him for their ranks. Suddenly, Lucas thinks he has the world by the tail. Everything looks rosy until the Skulls catch his best friend, Will (Hill Harper of "CSI: New York") an aspiring investigative journalist, snooping in their inner sanctum and murder him. Will's words echo in Lucas's ears: "If it's secret and it's elite, it can't be good." Imagine a synthesis of "The Firm" and "Enemy of the State," and you've got a rough idea what scenarists John "U.S. Marshals" Pogue and director Rob "Daylight" Cohen had in mind. Sadly, "The Skulls" never lives up to its potential. Pogue's muddled screenplay contains more holes than a skull. First, what wealthy, discrete, 200-year old group with major political influence would botch a homicide as horribly as these cretins? Second, how could a society so obsessed with their own secrecy allow an outsider to steal a member's keys and invade their privacy? Nothing in life is perfect, so the filmmakers had to contrive loopholes in the powerful, deadly, and inescapable web woven by the Skulls.Desperately, Lucas appeals to his scummy friends from the wrong side of the tracks, and they help him steal the society's surveillance videotapes. Meanwhile, Lucas' soul mate in the Skulls, Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker of "Into The Blue"), incriminates Lucas for Will's murder. No sooner has Lucas given the cops the tape with the murder on it than it disappears. Things grow even more complicated when the Skulls pack Lucas off to a psychiatric ward where they plan to let him drool to death.Everything in John Pogue's predictable script occurs just too easily. The exception to the rule is the opening boat race where an oar snaps and lucks runs against Lucas's team. Afterward, "The Skulls" sinks fast. An atmospheric initiation scene where the inductees gulp a knock-out potion and they awaken to find themselves emerging from coffins as reborn is more absurd than symbolic. The society brands them on the wrist and gives each an expensive wristwatch to conceal it. Some secret society, huh? In his first starring role, Joshua Jackson—looking like a young Mel Gibson—gives a good account of himself, but "The Skulls" conjures up more boredom than paranoia.

FilmCriticLalitRao There are no so many films made about secret societies.So from that yardstick the filming of "The Skulls" could have been hailed as a watershed event.However this was not to be as this film suffers from too many narrative inaccuracies.It appears that this film's team has not done its homework properly.The director and screen writer did not bother to concentrate on the single most important theme of the film : Secret Socities.No one can doubt that ample academic research was done before even the commencement of the actual filming.Instead of an overall development of this theme unsuspecting viewers were bombarded with an erratic array of out of topic themes like murder,blossoming of love,realization of personal guilt etc.The film appears as a distressed soul due to poor acting.Should any one wants to know what led a young boy to join a secret society ? Find out by watching The Skulls-a film that will not please you. In any case, I am sure that it did not please me even for its first thirty minutes.