The Skulls
9/10
The Skulls is an unforgettable great thriller that focuses on the dangerous Secret Society known as the Skulls.
I do enjoy that this movie has a very cool looking poster that is truthful for what the movie is about very similar to Blade, All POTC Movies, Guyver Dark Hero, Ferrari, Ford Vs Ferrari, Men Of War (1991) Point Break, The Untouchables, 48 Hours, Tango And Cash, (1987) Robocop, The Terminator, Terminator 2, Iron Will, Mystery Alaska, (2000) Gladiator, Marked For Death, Under Siege, Under Siege 2, all John Wick Movies, (1989) The Punisher, (2004) The Punisher, Drop Zone, Jaws, Remember The Titans (1991) Born To Ride and vast other movies.
Also very similar to Jaws and other movie posters, it has a scene from the movie shown on the Movie Poster.
It is a very well-written thriller movie that is fast-paced, the stakes are very high including for the nefarious charismatic main antagonist, mostly an original soundtrack with songs that fit the scenes, a variety of locations including outside of the Yale Campus area, a likable sympathetic Skull member that is Caleb which has the same negative relationship with his father similar to Norman aka Green Goblin views his son as the unworthy soon mostly because he isn't the science expert that Peter Parker is, good dialogue, existing songs are used smoothly because of fitting the scenes including Higher by Creed, memorable lines, solid world building with details about the Skulls talked about including the sensible money system for whom is paying for the Secret Society, a high stakes climax involving 2 fleshed out characters, multiple thrilling chase scenes, drama that is not contrived because of solid wrting, very entertaining action scenes, an existing mystery that gets resolved, 3 memorable distinguishable relatable protagonists that is Luke and Will which is the bromance of this movie, and Chloe that Luke's classmate and love interest, an entertaining flawed US Senator that is mostly a father to Luke even though this is never directly stated because the screenwriter respects the audience to see this detail in scenes without it being directly stated, compotent badass antagonists that do the messy work for the Skulls, a satisfying ending that is open ended similar to (2014) The Guest, the great movie remake of The Italian Job, Sky High, Hard To Kill, except didn't set up a direct sequel like Max Steel, (1993) Super Mario Brothers, Blade, X-Men, Spider Man, (1989) Batman, Batman Forever, The Matrix, John Wick 2, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and multiple other movies.
Detective Sparrow played by Steve Harris that is recognizable from The Practice drama tv show isn't the focus in this movie, however he is proven to be a compotent likable character with making the most of scenes that he's in including him seeing a huge flaw for a crime scene he investigated which he states to Luke which isn't shoehorned in or contrived because of good writing.
Also, a scene that stands out is a Batman-style scene where an antagonist uses a hidden switch that results in access to an area that has recorded tapes of the Skull's monitored areas including the War room.
This is a coming-of-age movie that has Luke making the faust-style deal to get what he thinks he wants. It's believable why exactly he would give a stunning classic car that is a 1963 Red Ford Thunderbird to a friend after stating what exactly he wants in return from the group of friends that he still talks to even though they aren't going to college.
The unforgettable amazing scene that I could repeatedly watch more than 800 times in 1 day without getting bored is the new Skull Members moving fast to their fancy Sports Cars including a 1963 Red Ford ThunderBird, a 1995 Ferrari F355 Spider which has stunning pop-up headlights that get shown off after a character starts the car, then all the new Skull members are shown driving their stunning impressive Sports cars on the road.
It is mostly a promotion for the High Life leaving people wanting to get a very high-paying job so that she or he can own a 1963 Ford ThunderBird, a Ferrari Pista, any other beautiful Ferrari car, or any other expensive sports car that looks beautiful, also is impressive and charismatic because of the impressive thundering sound it makes when moving fast.
Huge nitpicks are it's very unbelievable that Luke decides to make the unwise decision to read Law School cost information while he's sitting at a table during a College Class since the Professor does see that detail instead of after the class is over.
I understand he's eager to find out the exact high cost of Law School since his main passion is to be a Lawyer which the movie fleshes out as to why other than he can make a high amount of money from that occupation.
A other obvious flaw is it's never shown what is the Skulls organization solution for keeping former members quiet if any of them decide they don't want to continue to be a Skull for Life.
Also, why exactly would they have the brand on the wrist area which is going to become visible because since a normal yearly appointment with a Doctor that inspects a patient's body to make sure no issues with the feet, hands, legs, arms, and all other parts of the body including ears, eyes, nose, etc.
Also, the whole build-up to a scene with Luke talking to Caleb doesn't have much suspense because it ends quickly while in A Few Good Men, The Lincoln Lawyer, Black Panther, Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, (2016) Doctor Strange, Under Siege, (1989) Batman, (2003) The Italian Job, The Untouchables, Training Day, Green Lantern First Flight, Two For The Money, Cobra, GhostBusters 2, (1989) The Punisher, and multiple other movies have scenes of tension between 2 characters that are well written since the scenes don't end quickly.
These are minor flaws that don't diminish the great quality of a very well-written thriller movie that is solid in all measurable areas including consistent tone, a variety of locations, great acting, fast pace, strong world-building, good dialogue, great soundtrack with songs that fit the scenes, fleshed out distinguishable characters that have believable motivations for their achievable goals, etc.
Why exactly does Luke think that a romantic relationship with Chloe won't happen is given a solid realistic explanation by him when he's talking to Will about the why. It's a explain his answer scene which satisfied me including stated information that Chloe is in the high-class money league.
Mostly it was very similar to Hooper in the masterpiece movie Jaws when he talks to Chief Brody and Brody's wife for why exactly did he become interested in studying Sharks.
Where exactly he intends to go to Law School is stated by him which isn't surprising because it's prestigious, how he makes money is shown so it's believable he has a bicycle for getting to locations instead of a car because he doesn't make enough cash with the job that he has that could afford a car.
Also, he is shown to be a compotent rower of the Rowing team which does get shown in the rowing race which is suspenseful with the multiple actors of the stated College teams doing the challenging physical work of rowing during the rowing race scene.
Luke does have a smooth short length hairstyle similar to Dean Winchester which is practical because long hair would make it challenging for him to row on a rowing team with a long hair style.
The plot is based on some conspiracy theories about the Skull and Bone's Secret Student Society.
The Skulls is a fictional movie with fictional characters, except not entirely because Skull and Bones is a real Secret Student Society located on the Yale campus area.
George W Bush, George H.W. Bush, and William Howard Taft were Skull and Bones Members before all of them became the US President during different years in United States History.
That is a factual reason that the details about The Skulls given at the beginning shown on the screen are indisputable facts not lies created by this thriller movie.
I did notice that Will and Luke have the same portable black telephone in their Dorm room that my family had in the past when telephones were very common. Also, a box of wheat thins is visible in the Dorm area during the dramatic scene of Caleb giving an unambiguous warning to Luke that he'll dig his own grave if Luke doesn't quit digging.
Anything that should get explained does get explained including a believable explanation for how Judge Litten Mandrake is able to persuade Senator Ames Levritt to change his vote for a stated change.
Judge Mandrake mostly outright states how dreadful it would be for Senator Levritt if he released this awful dark secret about Senator Levritt to the general public.
Judge Mandrake is a ruthless nefarious irredeemable antagonist except the audience can't deny he's right when stating it would be dreadful for Senator Levritt if Judge Mandrake released the abysmal dark secret of what Senator Levritt did to the general public.
It's in the whole category of this Evil Character is right trope with some stated detail which did get shown in Happy Gilmore, The Running Man, POTC Curse Of The Black Pearl, Die Hard, Training Day, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Black Panther, The Rock, etc.
The movie succeeds in showing scenes that the Nefarious Main Antagonist isn't a good character because 1 scene shows him shadowed while stating a dark detail that disreputable actions worked even though he agrees with the criticism the actions that worked are wrong, also he gives a believable explanation for why Skull Members didn't use a sensible solution to fix a immense flaw in response to Luke stating what a talked about main character could have done to resolve a flaw that this movie showed.
I did enjoy this movie has a character explaining his answer trope which is strong writing. The Professor gave Luke details for the critical thinking question about the United States, and Luke provided a strong explanation for his answer.
The Skulls is a stand-alone wrapped-up story that satisfied me similar to (2003) The Italian Job, (1991) Born To Ride, Turner and Hooch, The Guest, Marked For Death, Remember The Titans, The Untouchables, Any Given Sunday, Broken Arrow, Joshua Tree aka Army of One, Men of War, etc.
The Skulls has 2 sequels except those are stand-alone sequels so it isn't undoing everything the first movie achieved in other words it doesn't have the inane frustrating retcon which happened in Terminator 3, Halloween Resurrection, Halloween 5, Batman and Robin which has the inane retcon because tension between Robin and Batman makes no sense since we saw Robin and Batman began to have a smooth partnership with tension ending before Batman Forever ended, etc.
