They Live (1988)
Review by Jeff Hudson

Directed by: John Carpenter

Starring:
Roddy Piper/Nada Keith David/Frank
Meg Foster/Holly

Plot:
Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep", "No Imagination", "Submit to Authority". Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued.

Acting:
The acting in this movie was great, Roddy Piper(Nada) stood out as a total badass with a likeable sense of humor, I cant imagine anyone else playing this role. Piper gives us some great one liners and kicking ass WWF style. Keith David(Frank) was a great sidekick and plays off Piper great they have some classic scenes together and the back ally brawl is one of the best fight scenes ever!

Gore:
The gore was fairly light here but we do some awesome fight scenes and some alien scum getting blown away.

T & A:
We get one brief boob shot towards the end of the flick.

Directing:
John is the man here, his use of black and white during the scenes when they put the glasses one was a nice touch and the action scenes were great, it just goes to show you how wide ranged John can be.

Soundtrack:
We get a slick and groovy blues/jazz score that I felt played a lot off of how the lead character’s attitude comes across, that being a smooth badass guy that wont take any shit.

Final thoughts:
They Live is a satirical look at the Regan era, it delivers a lot of strong feelings on how the government is running things but at the same time it does it in a fun way so that the political references don’t take over the movie. What makes this movie shine is Roddy Piper and his great smartass one liners like “momma don’t like tattletales“, and “I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass….. And I’m all out of bubblegum”. This movie is just flat out fan and could never be remade, it’s a strong product of the 1980’s.. I would say go out and buy this movie It’s well worth it, and don’t forget “life’s a bitch, and she’s back in heat”. I give it a 10/10.