Rating: C
Dir: Rob Cohen
Star: Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker, Hill Harper, Leslie Bibb
On the one hand, this is obviously anti-aristocratic, with an oft-repeated moral of “if it’s secret and elitist, it’s bad”; student Luke McNamara (Jackson) joins the Skulls, an Ivy League version of the Freemasons, only to rebel when they kill his best friend. But is there a hidden agenda here? Before we get diverted onto such appropriately paranoid thoughts, this is a competent piece of work, which has some excellent moments of paranoia generation, yet founders on a basic problem: if the Skulls are so all-powerful, how can one over-achieving blue-collar kid take them on without getting swatted like a fly? This snag is never quite overcome, and some other moments are equally hard to swallow. Still, if you can accept the concept of an all-powerful clandestine bloc to begin with, it’s not so much of a stretch. But I couldn’t help wondering [pauses to look over shoulder] if the all-too-real Skull and Bones club – from Yale, whose alumni include ex-President Bush – are now secure in the knowledge everyone will think they’re just a Hollywood product…