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Movies / Upcoming / The Skulls
The Skulls

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The Skulls (2000)

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Reviews Counted:83

Fresh:6

Rotten:77

Average Rating:3/10

Consensus: The Skulls is full of nonsense and empty of good script and plot.

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $0

Synopsis: At a top Ivy League college, a prestigious secret society has begun recruiting new members. One of their selections is Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson), a local working-class boy and star of the crew... At a top Ivy League college, a prestigious secret society has begun recruiting new members. One of their selections is Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson), a local working-class boy and star of the crew team. After a dangerous and arcane induction ceremony, Luke and other young men are welcomed into the Skulls, an elite fraternity with two former presidents and numerous powerful and important men as members. Luke enjoys his newfound privileges, which include fancy cars, money, and admittance to the law school of his choice. But when Luke's best friend and editor of the school newspaper goes investigating into the Skulls' inner sanctum and winds up mysteriously dead, Luke believes there may be sinister forces at work. Luke tries to quit the Skulls, refusing to go along with a cover-up involving the wealthy Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker), son of the Skulls' president, and soon ominous forces are threatening not only Luke but his girlfriend, Chloe (Leslie Bibb). But can Luke get away from the Skulls, or is he a part of them forever? THE SKULLS is a creepy blending of conspiracy thriller ideas, based on the actual Skull & Bones Fraternity at Yale, which included screenwriter John Pogue as a member. [More]

Starring: Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker, Craig T. Nelson, Leslie Bibb

Starring: Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker, Craig T. Nelson, Leslie Bibb, Hill Harper, Steve Harris, Christopher McDonald, Jenn Melino, William L. Petersen

Director: Rob Cohen

Director: Rob Cohen
Screenwriter: John Pogue
Producer: Neal H. Moritz, John Pogue
Composer: Randy Edelman

[See More Credits]

Reviews for The Skulls

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
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This is a straight to video job.

Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment Comment
10/30/01
Garth Franklin
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One of those releases that really should have gone straight to video -- in the discount bin.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/01/00
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Initially tolerable but increasingly stupid.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
03/05/07
Lisa Alspector
Lisa Alspector
Chicago Reader

Despite it's excellent cinematography, "Skulls" fails to "flesh out" a good premise.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Report Card | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ross Anthony
Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card

Laughable plot pushes The Skulls to brink of absurdity.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
01/01/00
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The contrivances pile up more quickly than snowfall in a Buffalo winter, and the ending is so lame that it provoked guffaws from theater-goers attending the screening along with me.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Laced with horribly clichéd secret society mumbo jumbo and unintentionally funny homoerotic undertones.

Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire | comment Comment
01/01/00
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

The Skulls could have been called The Numbskulls.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Boyar
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel

Through pure mismanagement, The Skulls bungles a rich seam of material.

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
12/02/02
Xan Brooks
Xan Brooks
Sight and Sound

The Skulls plummets into the realm of ludicrous failure.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe

A silly, hackneyed college suspenser put across with all the contrived banality of a bad '70s TV movie.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
01/01/00
Godfrey Cheshire
Godfrey Cheshire
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

I guess it wouldn't have been enough to just make an intelligent and gripping drama about Ivy League secret societies. No, we had to have a murder, coverup, good guys, bad guys, and so on.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/10/01
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A display of some of the worst writing and filmmaking ever captured for the screen.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Tim Cogshell
Tim Cogshell
Boxoffice Magazine

One big problem with the film from the start: I never understood why being a Skull was so special in the first place.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com

It's so ludicrous in so many different ways it achieves a kind of forlorn grandeur.

Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
At the Movies

Some movies are moron movies without seeming to know it, which can be charmingly pathetic or just dumbfounding.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
01/01/00
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

If there was an Oscar for the Silliest Movie Category, then The Skulls might be in with a good chance of winning.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Ben Falk
Ben Falk
BBC

Director Rob Cohen has crafted a bouncing escape yarn stocked with sharp twists and twisted characters.

Full Review Source: Mr. Showbiz | comment Comment
01/01/00
F.X. Feeney
F.X. Feeney
Mr. Showbiz

It's better than you expect going in, but not quite good enough to leave you with more than a vaguely pleasant, vaguely disappointed aftertaste.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
01/01/00
Gemma Files
Gemma Files
eye WEEKLY

Shot from one of the worst scripts to make it to the big screen in recent memory, it represents the sludge at the bottom of the Hollywood barrel.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jonathan Foreman
Jonathan Foreman
New York Post
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
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all

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