They Live (1988)

• 
  
  May 10, 2012

  FrizzDrop

  They Live is simple, not truly outspoken or new but enjoyable because there is an effort and finesse to the way this was made. Carpenter, who I never seemed to understand beforehand, is growing on me as a director, because his style may not be refined, or practical, but it does r... read moreelate to the audience. I so wanted to love this outright, but I still can't always get past the silliness, the impassioned acting of Roddy Piper, the lack of information that concerns the plot, and the simplicity of everything, nothing truly explained or explored. It bases the entire film on one concept and then doesn't develop the characters to really ingratiate us to care about this lackadaisical dystopian world. Still, I thought the visual components and the message that was so heavyhanded yet original, made this a good watch. Roddy Piper, who was most famous for being a wrestler at the time of this, truly blossoms onscreen. Though I don't regard those who are not actors acting in films to be a pleasant experience most times, Roddy really does fit within this film. The character calls for Nada (Piper) to be expressionless, severe, maybe even brooding, and Piper does a great job of portraying a down and out construction worker who stumbles across the biggest secret in the entire world. Do I think he should ever be in anything else? Absolutely not, but in a Carpenter film anything can happen, and though things were disproportionate most of the time, I found it small budget action film, in a good way. Though the best scenes seem to be comprised of Nada kicking bad guys down a peg or two or else learning the integral secrets of an alien operation, I enjoyed every little wisp of ill intelligence. Though Nada rarely speaks, he does spout some one liners and action movie cliches, my favorite of which has got to be, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum." There's a lot more, but Nada only seems to mutter them from the corner of his mouth and then just as easily forgets what he has just said. I agree with other reviewers that the ending was less than ideal, but I generally liked it because it was one big easy reveal, like ripping off a band aid. One of Carpenter's better low budget films, I highly recommend it.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  February 10, 2012

  FilmFanatik

  I don't think it's a secret that I'm not a big fan of John Carpenter's work as I think I've mentioned it before. He's a competent director, but his ego looms over his work and everything ends up feeling detached. They Live is another one of his films that are like that. Sure it's... read more cheesy and awful with a lot of political undertones in a fun way, but it's got his ego oozing out all over it and I can't find it quite as enjoyable as I'd want to. It's some great design work, some key and memorable visuals and also some nice ideas, as well as Roddy Piper who was one of the cheesiest actors of the 80's (but fun at the same time), but it just doesn't do it for me as much as I'd hope. For a Carpenter film, it's mediocre at best. It's not a huge loss though. He would go on to make the great action cheesefest masterpiece Big Trouble in Little China, so it's a win-win to me.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  November 7, 2011

  fb1664868775

  There is a politically charged masterpiece hiding in John Carpenter's ultimate B movie. The images from behind the glasses are classic and there is so many quotable lines. Definitely could have benefited from a different leading man, Canadian wrestler Roddy Piper really doesn't f... read moreit in (except for in the 10 minute long fist fight scene).

  Share This Review
• 
  
  October 13, 2011

  blkbomb

  Nada: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum. 
  
  "Who are they? And what do they want?"
  
  They Live is one of John Carpenter's coolest movies, but not one of his best. The only thing that really brings this movie down is the horrible acting,... read more mainly Roddy Piper. He is horrible, but he does seem to bring the movie some laughs with every bad one liner he says. Although, his acting kept this from being one of my favorites from Carpenter; it didn't hinder just how fun and cool the plot is. 
  
  Roddy Piper plays Nada, a drifter on the road looking for some much needed cash. He stops in a city, gets a job and finds a pair of sunglasses that show him how the world really looks. The sunglasses break the signal,that "they" are sending. He sees what billboards really say, "Obey." He sees that money is "god." He sees who the politicians really are. Now he is on a race to try to find our just what is going on and to see if he can, somehow, end this. The movie was a lot different then I expected. It's more of a straight up action film then anything else. 
  
  While watching They Live; I couldn't help but keep thinking about Assault on Precinct 13. Carpenter kind of goes back to that story with this movie. Except this time instead of cops being outnumbered by gangs; we have a few humans who know what is going on outnumbered by aliens. In both cases there's a lot of shootouts and a lot of violence. The only big difference structurally, besides the obvious, is that this isn't in anyway a serious movie. All the one liners pretty much give that away. 
  
  The movie isn't without its problems; the main one being the lead actor. Also, it has the weakest of any scores I have heard from Carpenter. Sometimes it is overly silly, to the point of embarrassment and other times it tries to be deathly serious. The tone is just all over the place and it kind of takes the flow of the film and throws it right out the window. But the concept is just too cool to not like. It's an extremely entertaining film; but a little sad because this could have been much, much better.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  June 22, 2011

  phubbs1

  Excellent horror sci-fi/horror flick and again what so many films are based around now, or copied. The effects are great for the time as is the makeup on the alien faces, truly spooky and pretty authentic looking too.
  I love how the film is open ended to make your own mind up, no... read more one really wins,
  its really clever and well made, an underrated Carpenter classic.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  February 20, 2011

  ajv2688

  Are your neighbors really aliens? Put on your sunglasses and find out! Yeah, the premise of this movie is a bit outrageous, but it's sort of a pre-Matrix story too, which is pretty cool, but it could have gone about it better than it does.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  November 22, 2010

  TheDudeLebowski65

  They Live is a film that echoes fears of a declining eclining economy, with greed and consupmtion. In the film, the higher class of society are Aliens, and a Drifter (played by Roddy Pipper) discovers a pair of Sunglasses that uncovers the truth about the Aliens, and how they try... read more to control the human race with subliminal messages in mass media. They Live directed by John Carpenter is a well crafted Sci Fi action horror film. The film has action reminiscent of a Rambo film. As a big fan John Carpenter, he directed my favorite film, I thought that this film was very original. As the film has sci fi action moments it does have a touch of light hearted comedy, and They Live, though not one of Carpenter's best, is definitely not his worst. For a man that tackled such films as Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween, The Thing and The Fog, They Live offers something totally new for John Carpenter fans. The film serves as a statement in a declining society where middle class Americans become poorer. The film is set in an atmosphere of horror and Sci Fi, and despite it's somewhat silly premise, They Live is still an awesome piece of 80's Sci Fi Horror. John Carpenter still manages to create something that will appeal to his diehard fans. Sure the acting may not be that great, but They Live is still an enjoyable film with a good enough plot to keep you interested. They live almost becomes a prophetic film because nowadays today's society is all too concerned about consuming more, and despite it's fears of a dwindling economy and mass consumption, this is a film to enjoy, but also not to be taken too seriously, and like I said before, it blends Sci Fi, action and horror very well, and add a bit of comedy, you get a winner.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  November 12, 2010

  flixsterman

  Rowdy Roddy Piper stars as a reluctant rebel dead set on eliminating aliens and exposing corruption and deceit (sounds like the Governor of Arizona, huh?) They Live works on that guttural, visceral level that plays on our distrust of authority and fear of the unknown. It... read more's also a fun watch with creepy makeup effects and kick-ass shootouts. Highly enjoyable if you don't take it too seriously.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  September 6, 2010

  mumby1988

  In a bid to escape being typecast as a horror director, John Carpenter sought to broaden his palette after Christine and experimented with a number of different genres. But while Starman still holds up as a moving romantic drama, Big Trouble in Little China resembles a dumb mix o... read moref Indiana Jones and Year of the Dragon. After the subsequent failure of Prince of Darkness, Carpenter needed something special to revive his career.
  
  They Live is Carpenter?s best film since The Thing, and is to date the last great film of his career. It takes the alien invasion premise of Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, mixes it with some clever insights on American politics and mass media, and then turns the heat up by injecting the plot with on-screen violence reminiscent of Robocop. Although uneven in places, it is an entertaining piece of filmmaking from one of modern horror?s most important directors.
  
  Despite having elements of both science fiction and action movies, They Live doesn?t start out feeling like either of these. The first half hour plays out more like a Western: it?s quiet, slow-moving and focussed around the everyday goings-on of small town folk, or in this case the homeless. The residents of the makeshift camp speak their mind and go about their business like they have been doing it their whole lives, much like the inhabitants of a small town in the cattle kingdom. Our protagonist has an air of the Man with No Name about him: he doesn?t talk much, and seems physically out of place.
  
  In this first half hour, we focus on the characters in the camp and gain an understanding of their social status. Most of them are hard-working, salt-of-the-earth types who won?t take state handouts as a matter of principle. Carpenter?s score contains bluesy elements to reinforce the trustworthy, blue-collar nature of these scenes, whether in the harmonica Roddy Piper plays at night or the double bass riff that follows him around. We empathise with them to such an extent that the goings-on at the church seem incredibly suspicious; when the police turn up and burn both church and camp, we feel sad but accept that something had to be done.
  
  In doing all this, the film cleverly manages to pull the wool over our eyes. When we first see the blind preacher pontificating in the street, we pay no attention to him; we?ve heard it all before, and it seems either off-putting or irrelevant. The same is true for the TV broadcasts; we?re not interested in listening to some intellectual ?lick his nuts?. We identify so clearly with the homeless characters that we become suspicious of anyone who seems vaguely intellectual. Hence when the sunglasses go on and the screen shifts to black-and-white, it comes as a very real shock.
  
  Carpenter?s decision to shoot ?reality? in black-and-white is an interesting one. On an historical level, it makes everything look like a 1950s B-movie, complete with aliens who look every bit like humans in unconvincing rubber masks. One of the underground broadcasts described how greenhouse gases have risen since 1958, which would imply the aliens have been among us for a generation. Although it may seem odd that an invasion force would look so old hat, it does make logical sense: if you conquer races by being invisible, you don?t have to worry about updating your look to keep with the times.
  
  Carpenter uses this visual technique to expose the shallow nature of consumerism and make a point about subliminal advertising. The world in colour is an ordinary 1980s American city; there is nothing stylised about the dialogue its citizens speak, and the advertising style is familiar. We are so used to advertising being a part of our lives that we don?t stop to give any of the billboards a second glance. When Piper puts the glasses on, he is literally seeing the world in black-and-white; all the flashy marketing is stripped away to reveal basic and cynical instructions about how we should live our lives.
  
  Like Aldous Huxley?s Brave New World and Neil Postman?s Amusing Ourselves to Death, They Live examines how people willingly give up their individuality out of a desire for wealth, pleasure, status or acceptance. Whether these desires are conscious or unconscious is hard to say, since the messages conveyed in the media are more or less the same ? people need to own the latest cars and gadgets so they can look like people on TV. The film is in its very essence deeply critical of television; Carpenter shot it so that much of the action takes place at the extreme ends of the frame, making it hard to show the film on the small screen.
  
  The Body-Snatchers elements of They Live are conveyed through an indictment of America?s social structure. Rather than simply being invaders, here the aliens are part of the rich elite, exploiting the underclass and squeezing the middle class. Everyone is getting poorer, but people keep buying into the system because all the information they receive promotes aspiration and consumerism. There is a running mention of the aliens treating the human race as its own third world; we buy into their ideals just as the poor of Africa come to believe they can work their way out of poverty. In other words, we consume as we are about to be consumed.
  
  For action movie fans, They Live has largely been remembered for two scenes. The first is where Piper inadvertently wanders into a bank with a shotgun to escape the police. Staring at the aliens in front of him, he quips: ?I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass? and I?m all out of bubblegum.? It?s still one of the coolest and funniest lines of the 1980s, superbly capturing the tone of the film.
  
  The other is the lengthy fight sequence, which was famously parodied almost shot-for-shot in the South Park episode ?Cripple Fight?. Piper and Keith David beat the living daylights out of each other as Piper tries to convince David to put on the sunglasses. Like so much 1980s action, what once seemed brutal and realistic now looks quite ridiculous, especially in an age where comic book violence has become the norm. We may believe that the characters are getting hurt, but the fact that they keep getting up so many times pushes credibility to the limit.
  
  The biggest problem with They Live is that it is incredibly uneven. It has the same kind of structural flaws as Dark Star, with different scenes being played for different effect. Sometimes it wants it to be an action movie, so the characters fire guns with bottomless magazines and manage to kill dozens of guards without getting hit. Sometimes it wants to be scary, so we get scenes of emotionless police officers beating people to death. Sometimes it wants to be funny, such as the bubblegum scene or the final shot which features an alien with a naked woman in a hotel. The film is always entertaining, but we?re never sure quite where things are heading, and because the style and genre keep changing, it is not as tense or claustrophobic as it could be.
  
  They Live is not Carpenter?s finest work by quite some stretch. Aside from its uneven keel, the characters are not as well-drawn as they are in his earlier work. Certainly Meg Foster is an odd choice for a love interest; her reptilian eyes and icy demeanour seem to give away her allegiances far too early. But aside from these problems, They Live is an entertaining action-comedy-thriller with a good compromise between substance and spectacle. It is wittily constructed and Roddy Piper carries himself well, being more talented and less annoying than Hulk Hogan. After so long in the wilderness, one hopes Carpenter?s new project will be just as enticing.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  December 11, 2009

  ythelastman89

  It's just hard to watch John Carpenter's downfall. This is just one in the many disasters to follow. There are virtually no characters that stand out, the tone is nonexistent and it's hard to tell what was trying to be achieved here. I think the fact that it was based on an earli... read moreer work might have effected this, but it's still a train wreck.

  Share This Review

• Roddy Piper as John Nada
• Keith David as Frank
• Meg Foster as Holly
• George 'Buck' Flower as Drifter
• Peter Jason as Gilbert
• Norman Alden as Foreman
• Susan Barnes as Brown-Haired Woman
• Gregory J. Barnett as Security Guard
• Christine Baur as Woman on Phone

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

• 
  The Thing (73%)
• 
  Alien Nation (57%)
• 
  Body Snatchers (71%)
• 
  Dark City (50%)

• • John Nada: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum.
• • Frank: Dirty motherfucker!
• • John Nada: Life's a bitch, and she's in heat.
• • Bearded Man: Our impulses are being redirected. We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep. (...) The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are nonexistent. They have created a repressive society, and we are their unwitting accomplices. Their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness. We have been lulled into a trance. They have made us indifferent to ourselves, to others. We are focused only on our own gain. Please understand. They are safe as long as they are not discovered. That is their primary method of survival. Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated.
• • John Nada: Call the cops? You know what you need? A Brazillian plastic surgeon-
• • John Nada: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum.

• Wayne Campbell broadcasted "Waynes World" out of his parents basement. Where did they live?  Answer »
• "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubble gum." Which B-Movie?  Answer »
• How did the Cooper family get the chance to live in a smart house in the movie Smart House?  Answer »
• Brian Stevenson has discovered a world of monsters in his room and they live underneath his bed! What "Little" movie am I talking about?   Answer »

• 
  Life's A Bitch....
  by fb810014034
  70 taken
• 
  They Live Quiz
  by darrenferneyhough
  220 taken

• Bubble gum
• Fight scene
• They Live trailer
• Alien Angel
• They Live trailer
• They Live Grocery Store Scene

• PrincessOf...
• atomjack
• antwanleer...
• YBother
• 80Mario80
• buckpooh2003
• NuditysShiver
• heystoopid74

• 

  "They Live" Remake Without Sunglasses?

  Posted by Petes1234567
  19 months ago

• 

  Director: John Carpenter

  by BrotherReed
  7 Movies
• 

  want to see

  by lesliepeterson
  491 Movies
• 

  Horror Experiment

  by alice5mith
  513 Movies
• 

  My Favorite Movies

  by fb1645720021
  29 Movies
• 

  Movies I Own.

  by trashboy4p1
  255 Movies