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...
C
