They Live (1988)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

As Good As It Gets

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I think the apparent goofiness and cheesiness is mocking the standard bestselling action blockbusters, their shallowness and lack of real substance. If the action scenes were high budget and attempted to be serious, they would muddle the film's intent. Their character was perfect for hitting the anti-consumerism sentiment close to home.

After receiving his major bill with a 25 Million Dollar production of "Big Trouble in Little China" from Twentieth Century Fox in the season 1985/1986, Director John Carpenter turned to his sophisticated B-Movie roots, who look like A-Lister, with an high-conceptual script of aliens, or are it just dead-inside people, who conquered the world of financing and the government in "They Live" from the late 1980s, when the Grindhouse double bill at major city movie houses slowly faded away from the landscape of invading home video cassettes and cable TV.Director John Carpenter holds all strings on this 4 Million Dollar production, engaging surprisingly authentic playing wrestler Roddy Piper with his solid sidekick actor Keith David, who enter the headquarters of "Them" as an Army of Two by killing off everyone in their path under machine gun fire to the menacing public TV broadcasting stationary room, fine-tuned by additional extreme-close-ups of barrel fire, which builds a throughout straight-to-finish racing editorial with nothing to wish for then being indulged into low-budget movie-making. Nevertheless the director has the gift to translate seemingly trashy screenplay into well-crafted motion picture, which easily transformed the production values of downtown Los Angeles shot-on-location sights into a tripling revenue at the U.S. domestic box office in Winter 1988/1989, which comes at no surprise, because the leading character struggling, yet calm and reserved drifter called Nada, who is about to enter an adventure of a life-time in order to fulfill his destiny to die for, saving the world from total subconsciously obedience, had spoken the U.S. working society from the heart.In retrospective, "They Live" has nothing lost of his engaging cult status, where in 2017 social structure are seemingly unchanged to the point that everything you have been able to buy at a grocery store in 1988 as food, drink, as to speak booze, and tobacco, has been available to this very day without questioning the inconvenient truth that the quality of the common food has been decreased to a level of lab-gene artificiality and further prices forced by inevitable inflation of international currencies making the work-purchase-relationship from day-to-day basis harder to conceive. In a sense, the movie's underlining criticism on a global society divided by currency, power and inter-human connection has become victim to the exposure of a director, who tediously trained his craft of cinematic visualization to at times astounding precision, but lacks the spark of a mind-binding twisting spectacle premise shot.Even though John Carpenter has been given another 50 Million U.S. Dollar budget by Paramount Picture in season 1995/1996 to realize the undeniable sequel to his arguably best film directed at the age of 32 "Escape from New York", starring Kurt Russell in the role of, timelessly connected character to motion picture history, Snake Plissken, which leaves "They Live" as a director-driven picture that without a doubt comes full circle by the end of fast-dropped curtains.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

A biting satire of modern society that actually makes more sense today than it did at its time of release, John Carpenter's They Live is a cleverly envisioned, intricately layered & rivetingly told sci-fi horror that was far ahead of its time, and its critical take on the power of commercialism & influence of advertising on the masses is only growing more relevant with time.The story of They Live follows a drifter who arrives in Los Angeles looking for work and stumbles upon a pair of sunglasses that allows him to see everything around him for what it really is. As he learns that subliminal messages in mass media is part of a hidden agenda by aliens masquerading as human beings to keep the human civilisation subdued, he tries to reveal the truth to the world.Written & directed by John Carpenter (best known for Halloween & The Thing), They Live takes its time to establish its bleak atmosphere, and only escalates once all the pieces on the board are set. Keeping a firm grip on the pacing & build up, the director paints a grim portrait of what mankind is reduced to but it is the film's close proximity with our current scenario that makes it compelling on so many levels.Carpenter doesn't hold back in illustrating the corrupting power of mass media, and captures the omnipresent subliminal commands behind every advertising banner for what they are. Greyscale photography is utilised to illustrate the truth while coloured segments represent the world that's completely oblivious to the reality it's living in. Carpenter's score may not rank amongst his finest compositions but it still works.Coming to the performances, the cast is led by noted WWF icon "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and features Keith David & Meg Foster in supporting roles. Piper is surprisingly low-key here, compared to his volatile in-ring persona, and chips in with a measured input that finely articulates his character's emotions & confusion. David delivers a sturdy performance that stands neck to neck with Piper's, while Foster's work has an enigmatic quality to it.On an overall scale, They Live is a brilliantly directed, deftly scripted, exquisitely witted, skilfully photographed, expertly edited, splendidly performed & nicely scored example of its genre(s) that paints an unsettling portrait of the world we live in, and is another underrated gem from Carpenter that's well deserving of its cult following. Smart, subversive & stimulating, this political satire has aged like wine and will continue to resonate strongly & more deeply as the years roll on.

"They Live" is gloriously over the top and wonderfully eccentric. This is John Carpenter having loads of fun and the audience is along for the ride. A drifter arrives in the city looking for work and a roof over his head. He accidentally stumbles into an alien invasion which no one, apart from a small selection of locals, has noticed. The aliens are disguising themselves by brainwashing everyone through their televisions. It isn't until he finds a pair of sunglasses that have the ability to see past the brainwashing and see who is human and who is alien that he realizes what is really going on.Carpenter often has something to say in his films and here it seems to be that the world being blinded by consumerism and not seeing what is in front of their own eyes. Here the message is a little haphazard and doesn't come across that well as it is lost amongst the outlandish action and over the top set pieces. Carpenter does subversive sci-fi and it's a whole bunch of fun. Stripped back it's evident that "They Live" is Carpenter's wry observation on the politico posers who endorse the rich getting richer and everybody else sliding down the pole; to where they stop nobody knows! It's also a blatant paean to the glorious years of the 1950's when paranoia based sci-fi schlockers and creaky creature features ruled the air waves. It's also a wonderfully macho driven action movie, laced with comedy as well. You can rest assured there will be plenty of shooting, punching, dodging and spoken lines to make you smile.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.