Gil Grissom, Shooter McGavin and Mr Incredible lead Pacey and Brian O'Conner into the Kingdom of the Secret Skull

 Nothing I write here is going to make me happier than the title of this post. In case you didn't figure out the references to a 26 year old middling movie, I watched The Skulls. It stars Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker and also has Leslie Bibb, Craig T Nelson, William Peterson, and Christopher McDonald. Quite the cast for a teen political/elitist thriller. 

Exceptional, but poor, Luke (Joshua Jackson) works a ton of part time jobs in order to go to Yale, and through this overwhelming abilities he's recruited to the vaunted Skull and Bones Yale secret society. This is the pathway to influence and wealth, at least by urban legend. Of course the society is nefarious and Luke has to choose between the future the Skulls "offer" and the ethics and true friends he could leave behind. 

There's a scene that starts with Creed's Higher that highlights the "glory" the Skulls have to offer, like women (ahhhhh, misogyny) cars, yachts, etc. Of course Luke's friend is investigating the Skulls and is found out and made to look like it's a suicide. The white male society circles the wagons and who will Luke side with?

Honestly the best part of this movie is when Leslie Bibb is running, for once they got an actress that it doesn't look outrageous that she could outrun some men. She could pretty easily out run a couple out of shape middle-aged men (I'm looking at you Shooter). 

There are two direct to video sequels, I was going to watch those as well, but they're not really available for free and I'm certainly not going to pay for them. The first wasn't that good.

3/10

Since The Skulls 2&3 weren't easy to find I looked across the pond for The Riot Club and to see another, perfectly innocent university secret society doing nothing wrong. This one felt a bit more realistic than The Skulls for sure. The stakes are lower, the insanity a bit more realistic and the biggest issue the complete stupidity of young spoiled men. Sam Claflin is in this one, an actor I believe is highly underrated. You still have to face the ultimate choice of what is the price of your morality. This is more difficult to watch as it's more a critique of the innate exploitation of such a misogynistic club. 

A bit more posh and classist, much akin to most British shows/movies. Man inherited wealth is grand ain't it? This is a much more human, better in almost every way movie. This is one that I appreciated watching but I'll never watch it again. 

7/10