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Review by Susan Granger
0 stars out of 4
Having lived in New Haven for many years, I often wondered when Hollywood
would capture the suspense and influence inherent in influential,
century-old secret societies like Yale's Skull and Bones. Obviously,
screenwriter John Pogue (a Yale dropout) and director Ron Cohen sensed
the intrigue but they've failed to capture the drama in this bland,
formulaic, heavy-handed dud. Joshua Jackson (TV's "Dawson's Creek")
plays a pre-law student at a prestigious Ivy League university only
identified as "Y" but with tell-tale blue-and-white colors on its crew
jerseys. Being from a working-class background, at first he's thrilled
when he's tapped by the powerful Skulls, primarily because, as a member,
he'll get pre-acceptance to law school, along with tuition, plus several
other enticing amenities that money can buy - like $20,000 in his depleted
bank account and a new car. But after his best buddy and room-mate
(Hill Harper) is killed while delving into the Skulls' malevolent little
secrets for the college newspaper, he begins to have second-thoughts -
which are aided and abetted by his intended blue-blood girl-friend (Leslie
Bibb). If you remember that President George Bush was a member of Yale's
Skull and Bones, along with his son George W., you'll catch the nasty
innuendoes about a father-son team hierarchy - only here, it's a prominent
judge (Craig T. Nelson) who's aiming at the Supreme Court while his weasly
son (Paul Walker) is up to no good on campus. And William Peterson does
what looks like a President Clinton imitation. The grisly, garish
initiation rites are straight out of the coffins in a Gothic horror novel.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Skulls" is a silly, brainless
1. Numskulls is more like it - so don't even bother renting the eventual
video.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
