‘The Skulls’ leaves viwers with headache
Tale of secret society ends in predictability and corniness
By Mike Callahan Jf.
Staff Writer
If it’s secret, and it’s elite, it can’t
be a good thing. No kidding. “The
Skulls” is just plain ridiculous.
This lackluster, wannabe thriller is
about a “townie” named Luke
McNamara, played by Joshua
Jackson, who is best known for his
teeny bopper-pleasing Pacey on
“Dawson’s Creek.”
Luke is attending Yale University
and is recruited to join a secret society
that produces future lawyers, politi
cians, CIA agents and all sorts of
American leaders.
Although Luke clearly digs the
bonuses of being a Skull, which
include a $20,000 direct deposit, a ride
of your choice from Shaquille
O’Neal’s garage and, of course,
women.
Sorority girls that is, who are herd
ed in like cattle in two single-file lines
at the conclusion of a Skulls formal
dinner, en route to escorting an
assigned Skull. Where are we sup
posed to assume they go?
Rrrrrrrrright.
But those close to Luke are
extremely skeptical about his new gig
froip the get-go. Especially his best
friend, Will (Hill Harper), who reacts
as if Luke just told him he’s the new
head of a religious cult when he finds
out he’s a member of the society. His
other friend Chloe (Leslie Bibb),
whom he has a crush on as big as a
Harvard law student’s head, is also
noticeably worried.
gThe Skulls
fj| STARRING: Joshua Jackson,
Wy! Paul Walker, Hill Harper
DIRECTOR: Rob Cohen
00^ RATING: PG-13 (language,
I violence)
Udj GRADE: C
f%f4 FIVE WORDS: "The Skulls"
script literally brainless.
I have to admit, I’m as guilty as
anyone in that I thoroughly enjoyed
watching Luke enjoy guilty pleasure
after guilty pleasure. But soon his
curious buddy Will, who turns out to
be investigating the Skulls for the
school paper, is found hanged.
Luke suspects a murder cover-up
by his skull-designated “soulmate”
Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker), who
just happens to be the son of Skull big
wig Judge Litten Mandrake’s (Craig T.
Nelson). The chance of Luke admit
ting his guilt, or his father allowing
him to, are about as good as Mike
Callahan getting into Yale.
It’s tough to call when director
Rob Cohen’s film is at its worst. In one
scene after some very heated dialogue,
the two crushees, Luke and Chloe,
have a love scene in a shower.
There relationship is catastrophi
cally undeveloped. For example: “Hi,
how are you?” “Good thank you, let’s
get it on!” “Okay.”
Not exactly what they said, but it
seemed that way. Throw Roseanne and
Tom Arnold in that shower, you have
the same lack of feeling for them.
Or maybe it’s the pathetic death
Courtesy Photo
THE SKULLS features Joshua Jackson of “Dawson’s Creek’’ fame. The film also stars veteran actors William
Petersen and Craig T. Nelson.
scene when Walker’s wooden charac
ter whines, “Dad, I just killed a guy in
the ritual room.” (The ritual room
look’s like something from Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom.)
With the writers more or less drop
ping the ball on this one, the actors got
the shaft. Jackson does all right, but
the WB may have to become a perma
nent address.
Perhaps the most refreshing of all
performances was that of Christopher
McDonald, a veteran character actor
who plays Sen. Martin Lombard, a
Skulls hotshot who helps Luke in the
end.
Despite the film’s blatant cheesi
ness, it does keep your attention.
Maybe it’s the stimulating scenery or
the intrigue of such far-fetched secret
society. Many will like the film just
because it’s such a unique scenario.
Most won’t. Just use your skull on this
one.
Movie helps real ‘Brockovich’ continue
crusade to help poisoned water victims
HBO documentary explores cancer
NEW YORK (AP) - Joseph
Lovett would have had enough per
sonal incentive to make a documen
tary about cancer had he been think
ing only about his father, dead at age
48 from colon cancer.
But that’s only where his family’s
sad saga begins. The same disease
killed his brother Raul at 55. His sis
ter, Tricia, died of ovarian cancer at
61. Lung cancer claimed his brother
Bill at 63.
If Lovett didn’t have regular
screenings of his colon, one of which
detected the beginning stages of can
cer, “I would be dead today,” he said.
In his 2 1/2 -hour documentary,
“Cancer: Evolution to Revolution,”
Lovett tries to erase the stigma of
cancer and empower people who
have been diagnosed with the dis
ease. The show premieres on HBO
Thursday at 8 p.m. and will also be
shown next Wednesday and on April
8,11 and 17.
“Doing a film on cancer has
allowed me to face my own fears,” he
said. “I’ve learned that there is a
whole new way of thinking about
and dealing with cancer.”
Half of American men and one
third of American women are diag
nosed with cancer at some point in
their lives. There are 1.2 million new
cancer diagnoses each year in this
country, and 560,000 people die
from die disease.
Yet it’s still a word spoken only in
whispers among many people, if at
all.
“There’s been such a denial
about the disease,” Lovett said. “We
hear people all the time saying, ‘I
don’t know anyone who has had can
cer.’ That’s just not possible. It’s like
saying, ‘I don’t know anyone who is
Jewish or gay.’ Well, you just haven’t
asked that many people.”
In terms so simple and expres
sive to be almost frightening, the
documentary describes the latest
theories about how cancer develops.
Instead of being a foreign invader
like a virus, cancer is a traitor - a
good cell that misbehaves and then
multiplies, explains Dr. Richard
Klausner, director of the National
Cancer Institute.
Cancer used to be considered a
death sentence. Now, however, most
patients diagnosed will not die
because of that cancer.
The film introduces Gary
Schine, a businessman from
Providence, R.I., who was diag
nosed with hairy cell leukemia and
told that he was going to die because
there was no cure. Schine and his
wife did their own research and
located a clinical trial of a potential
cure. He’s been cancer-free for nine
years.
Those kinds of stories convinced
Lilly Tartikoff, widow of television
executive Brandon Tartikoff, to get
involved as one of the documen
tary’s narrators.
Her husband’s cancer was initial
ly misdiagnosed and - against his
instincts - he sought second opin
ions and more aggressive treatment.
Tartikoff is convinced this added 16
years to her husband’s life.
It’s the documentary’s most
insistent message: Take control of
your own health. Seek second opin
ions, learn everything you can about
your disease through the Internet
and be aggressive about treating it.
Don’t assume the first doctor
you see knows everything about all
forms of cancer, things are changing
all the time.
“It’s easier and simpler to just
believe in your doctor,” Tartikoff
said.
Lovett tells the stories of differ
ent cancers through patients who are
living with them. There’s Jessica
Turri, an 11-year-old leukemia
patient in Memphis, and Vanessa
Colbert, a 41-year-old breast cancer
patient in Houston, who uses sup
port groups to help her cope. .
HBO is launching a companion
Web site, at HBO.com, together with
leading cancer organizations and
specialists to disseminate more
information. In the documentary,
phone numbers and Web addresses
are constantly flashed on the screen.
It makes the film drier, but die infor
mation might literally be a lifesaver.
“People are stunned at how much
support is available to diem for free,”
Lovett said.
KETTLEMAN HILLS, Calif.
(AP) - In the No. 1 hit “Erin
Brockovich,” many moviegoers are
seeing how a brash young legal secre
tary forced Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
to pay a record $333 million settlement
for poisoning the water in a small
California desert town.
But the movie’s story of environ
mental villainy is only the beginning of
the legal and public relations nightmare
Brockovich has created for the utility
company.
A bigger, broader lawsuit is headed
to trial in November against San
Francisco-based PG&E and one of its
main suppliers.
About 1,500 employees, their fam
ilies, other residents and farmers who
lived or worked near three PG&E gas
compressor plants contend their water
supplies also Were contamihated with
harmful levels of cancer-causing
chromium 6 from the 1950s to the
1970s.
The tough-talking, streetwise
Brockovich is trying to find every last
person who may have been exposed.
Being portrayed on screen by Julia
Roberts hasn’t hurt hi the movie’s first
week, 40 to 50 potential plaintiffs
called.
“We won’t feel resolved - morally,
ethically or legally - until we have
found everyone we were supposed to,”
said Brockovich, 39. “And I will keep
working until we do.”
PG&E has said little about the
accuracy of the movie or its effect on
the litigation.
“Our general response with respect
to die movie is just that we recognize itk
a dramatization. It’S an entertainment
vehicle,” spokesman Greg Pruett said.
He added that PG&E officials “don’t
really have any thoughts” about how
the film might; affect the company’s
image or influence jurors.
“I will say this: I do believe that
when the case is brought to trial, we will
mount a very spirited and vigorous
defense,” he said. “And we are confi
dent we will be successful in that
defense.”
Brockovich, who was hired by
lawyer Ed Masry even though she had
no college degree or technical experi
ence, was looking at files for a real
estate case in 1992 when she found
medical reports about low T-cell counts
and other blood problems among resi
dents of tiie town of Hinkley.
Curious, she drove her beat-up car
out to the Mojave Desert town - about
100 miles northeast of Los Angeles -
and began a quest that lasted four years.
“Erin did most of the work,” Masry,
played by Albert Finney in the movie,
said of the research that uncovered the
Hinkley pollution scandal that brought
compensation for 652 Hinkley resi
dents in 1996. Brockovich earned $2
million for herself. But she wasn’t done
snooping around.
U We won }t feel
resolved - morally;
ethically or legally
- until we have
found everyone we
were supposed to”
Erin Brockovkh
Suspecting similar problems at
other PG&E plants, Brockovich and
Masry drove out to Kettleman Hills in
California’s Central Valley, where
employees and their families once lived
onsite in a complex they called Camp
PG&E.
Masry looked at the cooling towers
mid the buildings abandoned in the
mid-1980s and saw no sign of contam
ination. He told Brockovich to drop it
But she noticed a white powder on
the needles of the tamarisk trees, an
abnormality she remembered from
Hinkfcy. And soon, she was at it again,
mining records and tracking down any
one who lived or worked at Kettleman.
Among die boxloads of documents
she cqried was a 1964 letter from die
U.S. Interior Department notifying
PG&E about unhealthy levels of
chromium 6 in Kettleman’s water well.
The Kettleman plaintiffs accuse
PG&E of contaminating the water they
used for drinking, bathing, swimming
and watering crops. They say the water
gave them everything from nosebleeds
to fatal diseases.
The case also includes about 150
people from Hinkley who missed out
on die first lawsuit and about 20 from a
plant in Topock, on the California
Arizona line, who also claim they were
sickened by chromium. Also being
sued is Betz Laboratories Inc. of
Pennsylvania, which supplied the
chromium, one of the chemicals used
to cool natural gas.
Unlike the lawsuit depicted in the
movie, PG&E has not offered binding
arbitration, which would bring a swift
outcome. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say
PG&E is trying to prolong the proceed
ings so there will be fewer survivors.
PG&E declined to respond to that
allegation or any other related to the
lawsuit.
Gary Praglin, one of the lawyers for
the plaintiffs, said at least 50 people
have died since the case was filed about
five years ago. Causes of their deaths
include cancer, kidney and liver dis
eases, serious respiratory problems and
colon diseases like Crohn’s.
Ruth Ann Vaughn, who spent the
first 10 of her 47 years at Camp PG&E,
recalls the innocent days she spent
floating boats carved from Ivory soap
in the cooling ponds, or being sprayed
by die mist from the cooling towers as
she rode on the handlebars of her broth
er’s bike to buy bubblegum from a com
pany snack machine. -
She blames chromium exposure for
her Crohn’s disease aid the loss of her
sister and mother, who died of multiple
organ failure in the early 1990s. And
she wants PG&E to pay.
“They need to take care of the peo
ple they’ve harmed,” Vaughn said, her
voice cracking. “They’ve killed inno
cent children, moms, dads and families,
fen-profit And then instead of doing die
right thing, they continue to cover it up,
and they’re making us victims again.”