Would you swear your allegiance to some stealth
secret society seducing you with insurmountable sums,
slick sports cars, sexy slender sisters, scholarships
to study law at several esteemed schools essentially
securing your prospective professional success?
Struggling to pay the bills at his Ivy League
University, city-kid Joshua Jackson sighs, "My
future's killing me," then succumbs to the seduction
as the price to calm the side effects of entry into
the Skulls skyrockets.
A group of ten recruited college studs (only
2 of which matter) stumble in the dark through a
mysterious and spooky initiation process. The two:
our hero Joshua and the typecast teen jerk Paul
Walker.
There's actually a very exciting long boat race
earlier on. Meant to endear us to the main character
(which admittedly, it does), the race itself is more
climactic than the picture's climax. The film is
still intriguing as we (along with Josh) learn about
this elite secret society membering members of
congress etc. Why the club is called "Skulls," is
never revealed - probably it just sounds cool. To
celebrate the new groups "rebirth," dressed in
expensive duds and rubbing shoulders with senators
and judges, the music rolls over to rock, a flock of
gorgeous babes slow-mo into the room, and the young
new talent leave the party in $50,000 sports car of
their choice. It's a very slick sequence.
Not too long after, however, the film takes a dive
into "Starsky and Hutchdom," with a TV 70's bad guy
pursues good guy into a fenced in alley staple, that
detours into a car chase worthy of "Dukes of Hazard."
Oh sure that can be fun, but in a film that sets
itself up as clever, darkly sinister and proudly
bares the name "Skulls?" It's hardly stately. The
good old fashion duel at then end doesn't vindicate
it in the least, nor is it unpredictable.
Joshua Jackson pulls down a strong performance as
does Paul Walker, but the uneven dialogue dips into
the silly. Despite it's excellent cinematography,
"Skulls" fails to "flesh out" a good premise.
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