A senior at an ivy league college, who depends on scholarships and working on the side, gets accepted into the secret society The Skulls. He hopes it betters chances at Harvard but The Skulls is not what he thought and comes at a price.
A young college co-ed tries joining the elite, all-male, secret society, the Skulls, and in so doing, she uncovers some unscrupulous methods used by some of the members to get what they want.
Director:
J. Miles Dale
Stars:
Clare Kramer,
Bryce Johnson,
Barry Bostwick
Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychotic killer.
A low-ranking thug is entrusted by his crime boss to dispose of a gun that killed corrupt cops, but things get out of control when the gun ends up in wrong hands.
Director:
Wayne Kramer
Stars:
Paul Walker,
Cameron Bright,
Chazz Palminteri
A group of archaeologists become trapped in the past when they go there to retrieve a friend. The group must survive in 14th century France before they can escape back to the 21st Century.
A DEA agent provides former Marine Tim Kearney with a way out of his prison sentence: impersonate Bobby Z, a recently deceased drug dealer, in a hostage switch with a crime lord.
Director:
John Herzfeld
Stars:
Paul Walker,
Laurence Fishburne,
Olivia Wilde
Earl's engaged to his step-sister Baby. Baby has entrusted him to take care of her misfit cousin Junior. Baby is also intent on leaving Texas for LA on Tuesday. When Junior and his recently... See full summary »
Luke McNamara, a college senior from a working class background joins a secret elitist college fraternity organization called "The Skulls", in hope of gaining acceptance into Harvard Law School. At first seduced by the club's trapping of power and wealth, a series of disturbing incidents, such as his best friends suicide, leads Luke to investigate the true nature of the organization and the truth behind his friends supposed suicide. He starts realizing that his future and possibly his life is in danger.Written by
Kyle <Kyleshivers@aol.com>
When the Skulls members are heading out to the island, the castle in the background is Singer Castle on Dark Island. The island that the Skull and Bone Society owns is called Deer Island. Both islands are in the Thousand Island of the St. Lawrence River. See more »
Goofs
When Lombard and his crony chase Chloe across campus and over the football field, they run through the sprinklers. However, none of them appears wet in the next close-up. See more »
The DVD version includes deleted scenes showing: Luke working as a singing flower delivery boy; a longer bar scene; after the bar scene they stop off at the news office; what happens after they fall off the roof; judge Mandrake blackmailing Luke; judge Mandrake convincing Caleb to "confess". See more »
The Skulls is a thinly veiled allusion to one of the purportedly most secret of all secret societies, Skull and Bones, the Yale group to which George Bush (the former president) belonged. You know all about those secret societies; they breed smart, rich young men who will put other smart, rich young men in power, and then those men will put other smart, rich young men in power, and so forth and yadda yadda yadda. You can find out all sorts of things about Skull and Bones online, and I suppose there's a chance some of those things are actually true. But for the purposes of this movie - and this review - suffice to say that The Skulls is a small group mostly made up of rich white kids who get paid scholarships, free cars, free women, the whole works. And what does this secret society ask for in return? Unbound loyalty, of course. Unquestioning and absolute loyalty, kind of like the Mob, really, only the Mob is more overtly criminal.
The story focuses on Luke, a townie at Yale University. Luke wants to go to law school, but the tuition's a little high. He's parentless and low on funds, so of course he's prime pickings for The Skulls. Will he join them? Darn tootin' he will, despite the protests of his best friend and this hot young blonde he likes. They try to reason with him, believing their friendship is stronger than his need to be a lawyer, but they're wrong. If they were right, we'd have no movie.
So he joins, and wouldn't you know it, all kinds of bad things happen to poor Luke. There's murder, there's corruption, and gosh and golly, our boy just doesn't know who to trust. More twists than a Poe novel; the only problem is, they're not believable twists. If you're cynical about this kind of movie (as I am), you'll laugh out loud many times, both at the acting and the dialogue. The worst offense is in the timing, quite frankly. At no point are we led to believe that this society could be a GOOD thing. We know immediately it's bad. See, I think to be truly sinister you need to wear a mask of credibility. If I already know how bad you are, I won't be as afraid of you or as startled when you actually do something despicable.
This is a real chucklefest, in the same vein as Final Destination, Urban Legends, I Know What You Did Last Summer (both movies), and even the Scream movies, which I didn't care for (but I know many of you did, so whatcha gonna do). You have an attractive cast spouting incredible lines in unbelievable situations. The old moviegoer in us wonders what Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck would have done in this movie when they were younger (and, in Stewart's case, alive), but that's probably a philosophical debate best left to denizens of the old critics' home. As for me, I'd say pass on The Skulls - it's as hollow as its name might imply.
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The Skulls is a thinly veiled allusion to one of the purportedly most secret of all secret societies, Skull and Bones, the Yale group to which George Bush (the former president) belonged. You know all about those secret societies; they breed smart, rich young men who will put other smart, rich young men in power, and then those men will put other smart, rich young men in power, and so forth and yadda yadda yadda. You can find out all sorts of things about Skull and Bones online, and I suppose there's a chance some of those things are actually true. But for the purposes of this movie - and this review - suffice to say that The Skulls is a small group mostly made up of rich white kids who get paid scholarships, free cars, free women, the whole works. And what does this secret society ask for in return? Unbound loyalty, of course. Unquestioning and absolute loyalty, kind of like the Mob, really, only the Mob is more overtly criminal.
The story focuses on Luke, a townie at Yale University. Luke wants to go to law school, but the tuition's a little high. He's parentless and low on funds, so of course he's prime pickings for The Skulls. Will he join them? Darn tootin' he will, despite the protests of his best friend and this hot young blonde he likes. They try to reason with him, believing their friendship is stronger than his need to be a lawyer, but they're wrong. If they were right, we'd have no movie.
So he joins, and wouldn't you know it, all kinds of bad things happen to poor Luke. There's murder, there's corruption, and gosh and golly, our boy just doesn't know who to trust. More twists than a Poe novel; the only problem is, they're not believable twists. If you're cynical about this kind of movie (as I am), you'll laugh out loud many times, both at the acting and the dialogue. The worst offense is in the timing, quite frankly. At no point are we led to believe that this society could be a GOOD thing. We know immediately it's bad. See, I think to be truly sinister you need to wear a mask of credibility. If I already know how bad you are, I won't be as afraid of you or as startled when you actually do something despicable.
This is a real chucklefest, in the same vein as Final Destination, Urban Legends, I Know What You Did Last Summer (both movies), and even the Scream movies, which I didn't care for (but I know many of you did, so whatcha gonna do). You have an attractive cast spouting incredible lines in unbelievable situations. The old moviegoer in us wonders what Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck would have done in this movie when they were younger (and, in Stewart's case, alive), but that's probably a philosophical debate best left to denizens of the old critics' home. As for me, I'd say pass on The Skulls - it's as hollow as its name might imply.