Cast (in credits order) verified as complete
The Skulls Movie Trailer
The Skulls - TRAILER (2000)
The Skulls Film Description
In The Skulls Movie While it creates a nice moral dilemma, the 'skull' is presented in such an unbelievable way that it is crippled at birth.
Luke McNamara is a small-town boy of modest means who attends an Ivy League institution that is never actually named but is apparently Yale. He is hoping to be called to membership in The Skulls Movie, a secret society of great status and power.
The doors of power, wealth and influence are wide open to the members of this society. It's a dream come true for Luke, who spends most of his time racking up hundreds of thousands in student loans.
When he learns that one of the members has committed a crime, he is torn between his desire for wealth, his loyalty to a friend, and his conscience.
Writer John Pogue (`U.S. Marshals') has crafted a fine moral tale, but it's so loaded with ridiculous premises that it becomes laughable. It is believed to be a secret society where no one except the members know who the members are.
Still, Pogue and director Rob Cohen present it in a way that might as well advertise their identity on TV. The building in which the secret meetings take place is prominently marked with a skull, and only members have keys to the building.
So, duh, anyone entering the building has to be skullcap. New members get a brand new $50,000 vehicle and $100,000 in cash, just like no one else will experience this sudden good fortune.
New members are branded on their wrists and we must believe they will never be seen by anyone without their wristwatch. The list of unimaginables goes on and on.
The acting is generally quite good. Joshua Jackson ("Cruel Intentions", "Urban Legend") is excellent as Luke. He plays the role with the right combination of idealistic enthusiasm and moral base.
He is greatly supported by Paul Walker ("She's All That", "Varsity Blues") as Caleb Mandrake, a spoiled rich kid trying to step out of his father's shadow. Craig T. Nelson gives a wonderfully nefarious performance as President of The Skulls Movie and Caleb's father.
Maybe secret societies exist, and maybe they don't. The fact that no one is certain indicates that if they are more than mere myths, they are much more cryptic than portrayed here. I have given The Skulls Movie a rating of 6/10. It's an interesting idea that loses credibility in the telling.
The skull is a thinly veiled allusion to one of the most secretive of all secret societies, Skull and Bones, the Yale group belonging to George Bush (former president).
You know all about those secret societies; They produce 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 on and so forth, yadda yadda.
You can find all kinds of stuff online about Skull and Bones, and I think it's likely that some of that stuff is actually true. But for the purposes of The Skulls Film - and this review - suffice it to say that The Skulls Film are a small group made up of mostly rich white kids who get paid scholarships, free cars, free women, the whole job.
And what does this secret society demand in return? Unbound loyalty, of course. Unquestioning and absolute loyalty, like the mob, in fact, only the mob is more criminal.
The story focuses on Luke, a sophomore at Yale University. Luke wants to go to law school, but the tuition is a bit high. He has no parents and lacks money, so of course he's the prime choice for The Skulls Movie.
Will he support them? He'll break through, despite protests from his best friend and this hot young blonde.
They try to reason with him, believing their friendship is stronger than they need to be lawyers, but they are wrong. If they were right, we wouldn't have a movie.
So he gets involved, and wouldn't you know it, all kinds of bad things happen to poor Luke. There's murder, there's corruption, and oh my god, our boy doesn't know who to trust.
more twists than a Poe novel; The only problem is that they are not reliable turns. If you're cynical about this type of movie (as I am), you'll be laughing out loud at times, both at the acting and the dialogue.
The worst offense is in time, quite frankly. At no point are we led to believe that this society could be a good thing.
We know right away that this is bad. Look, I guess you need to wear a mask of credulity to be truly sinister. If I already know how bad you are, I won't be as horrified by you or be as surprised when you actually do something despicable.
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) This is a real joke . , then what to do).
You have a stellar cast delivering incredible lines in incredible situations. The older moviegoers among us wonder what Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck might have done in The Skulls Film when they were younger (and, in Stewart's case, alive), but that's probably a philosophical debate that's best left to the residents of the old critic's house. Best for. As for me, I'd say skip The Skulls Movie - it's about as hollow as its name might imply.
The Skulls Movie is a fantastic suspense thriller with lots of excitement and all kinds of twists and turns. The film also stars the absolutely wonderful Paul Walker. What more could you want?
When I first saw The Skulls Film in the theatre, I knew it was one to own. (On DVD.) (-Contains 'The Making of The Skulls Film', Director's Commentary, Deleted Scenes, DVD-ROM featurette, etc.) It's really, really cool.
The Skulls Movie is about a college fraternity called The Skulls Film, of course. Anyone who wants to join and when Luke McNamara, (Joshua Jackson.) a working class senior is accepted, he is of course very excited.
Once he joins he gets money, power and is also told that the Skull can help him get into any law school he wants to go to. (He wants to attend Harvard.)
Everyone who joins The Skulls Film gets 'friends for life' and Luke teams up with Caleb Mandrake. (The Fabulous Paul Walker.) Caleb's father is one of the High Chairmen of The Skulls Movie.
While things are going great for Luke, when his best friend, Will, (Hill Harper.) (who was never happy about Luke joining The Skulls Movie in the first place.) hangs out in his room and he Presumably having committed suicide, Luke realizes that the Skull is not all that he thought.
So Luke, with a little help from his friend Chloe (LESLEY BIBB), tries to find out what really happened to Will, while also discovering some more disturbing things about The Skulls Movie.
All the actors in the film are very good. First you have Paul Walker, he's a genius at everything he does. (You can see his gorgeous body here, too.) Then you have Joshua Jackson, he's pretty cool, and then there's Leslie Bibb.
Who on earth cast it? She is such a bad actress. She has that 'girl next door' thing, but she really can't act. I can *just* stand him on the TV show Popular, but really. Oh well, all you have to do is smile and unleash it. Rob Cohen directs The Skulls Movie and he does a great directing job as always.
I would recommend The Skull to anyone. If you like drama, suspense, thriller etc. or if you are a fan of Paul Walker then The Skull is for you.
The Skull deals with an interesting subject, but never overcomes a vague script that goes nowhere until the final scenes.
Two new youths are at the center of a story about a mysterious organization called "The Skull" that offers rich rewards for joining a secret society. Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker are two young men and Craig T. Nelson is Walker's father who wants his rich son to come up in society.
The acting is decent enough, especially by Jackson, and Craig T. Nelson is earnest as the domineering father, but questionable plotting is a hindrance all the way.
The sets are elegantly designed and the technical credits are fine but none of the characters are particularly interesting and the viewer is unable to engage in a story that lacks enough tension to pull the whole thing together.
Nice try, but having relatively unknown actors to fill all the roles doesn't help much. As a suspense thriller, it could have been tighter and better made.