This is a straight to video job.
The Skulls (2000)
Tomatometer
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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.
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
Reviews for The Skulls
One of those releases that really should have gone straight to video -- in the discount bin.
Despite it's excellent cinematography, "Skulls" fails to "flesh out" a good premise.
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.
Laced with horribly clichéd secret society mumbo jumbo and unintentionally funny homoerotic undertones.
Through pure mismanagement, The Skulls bungles a rich seam of material.
A silly, hackneyed college suspenser put across with all the contrived banality of a bad '70s TV movie.
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.
A display of some of the worst writing and filmmaking ever captured for the screen.
One big problem with the film from the start: I never understood why being a Skull was so special in the first place.
It's so ludicrous in so many different ways it achieves a kind of forlorn grandeur.
Some movies are moron movies without seeming to know it, which can be charmingly pathetic or just dumbfounding.
If there was an Oscar for the Silliest Movie Category, then The Skulls might be in with a good chance of winning.
Director Rob Cohen has crafted a bouncing escape yarn stocked with sharp twists and twisted characters.
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.
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.
Latest News for The Skulls
June 12, 2007:
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September 27, 2006:
"Stealth" Director Gets "Scared Straight"
Director Rob Cohen, best known for movies like "The Skulls," "The Fast and the Furious," and "xXx," has signed on to direct a prison thriller... More...
July 28, 2005:
RT Critical Consensus: "Sky High" Soars, "Stealth" Crashes, and Diane Lane and John Cusack Go Dateless
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July 11, 2005:
Pogue Pens Remake of a French Fright Flick
Screenwriter John Pogue has sold his pitch for a remake of the 2002 French horror film "Malefique" to Paramount, says Variety. Producer Neal Moritz... More...
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