THEY LIVE (1988) REVIEW

Here we go folks, i sat down last night to revisit a film that i love and one that entertains me immensely. The Film Im talking about is John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi action film, They Live. Check out my review but be warned, there are some spoilers within the review....Hope Y'all enjoy....

Most people class John Carpenter as a Master of horror, and rightfully so but what people don't seem to realise is that he made more Sci-fi films than horror movies. But where as his horror films have been the one's that movie goers have taken more to their hearts than his Sci-fi flicks, For me his best work is in this genre. Sure Halloween, The Fog and Christine are great horrors but Escape From New York, The Thing and They Live are more enjoyable. A lot of fans would class The Thing as a horror, but when the film is a remake of the classic 50s sci-fier and based on the science fiction book, Who Goes There? written by Sci-fi author John W. Campbell, You really need to remove The Thing from horror. While not completely sci-fi but futuristic, Escape From New York still has that sci-fi vibe about it due to the gadgets and sort of post apocalyptic setting. But For me his most obvious sci-fi flick post Dark Star is They Live, a hybrid of Rambo meets Alien Invasion film and it's pretty fucking bad ass.

They Live is very much a product of the 80s, the cars, the fashion and the hair, my god the hair, but the coolest thing about They Live is that it's incredibly entertaining. Roddy Pipper does a great job as Nada and shows that acting in wrestling transfers well to the screen, a point that Dwayne Johnson has also made, Roddy Piper had, that same year, made the frankly silly but also very entertaining Hell Comes To Frogtown and would unfortunately go on to star in low budget action fare such as The Bad Pack and Back In Action, which is sad because he could have been part of the 80s action elite, I mean when you look at 'The Rock', his films have been quite high grossing films, sure many of his films are kids films, but he does make great action thrillers too. But I guess in this day and age, if you're a wrestler then you are gonna get type cast which is what happened to Piper.

The great Keith David stars as Frank, Nada's partner (not in a living together way). Keith David is very very familiar, he has one of those voices that I find instantly recognisable and the man has been in or shows up in almost everything from playing Childs in The Thing to Voicing Spawn in the animated series all the way to providing Voice work for the Call Of Duty games and appearing in Pitch Black and it's sequel. David is always on the fucking money as either a heavy or a good guy and as labourer Frank in They Live, he kicks so much ass, most of it being Roddy Piper's in a brilliantly choreographed street fight that's been copied all most shot for shot by South Park and stands next to The Quiet Man (1952) for epic battle of the fists. Apparently the fight was only supposed to last 20secs but Piper and David decided to only simulate hits to the face and groin but every other hit is real, and Carpenter was so impressed he left the entire fight in lasting a total of 5minutes and 20 seconds.

The only other main character really serves no purpose what so ever to film, Holly Thompson played by Meg Foster seems a little out of place in a rather masculine film. Sure she is a kind of Love interest for Nada but nothing really comes of that. It's a shame that the only let down in the film is this character.

Carpenter's style during the mid to late 80s was very obvious, you could tell a Carpenter film from a mile away and his direction on They Live is, as with most of his films, top notch. It's also a strange one Carpenter as he uses colours to highlight action such as the Homeless camp raid, lit by red smoke and flashing police sirens, but you know it really works to the films advantage as opposed to

the darkness that filled his previous Prince Of Darkness and the bubblegum style of Big Trouble In Little China.

The script written by the pseudonymous Frank Armitage who is actually Carpenter himself and used the name as homage to a character in one H.P Lovecraft's Stories, The Dunwhich Horror. The most famous line in the film, said by Nada as he entered the bank, “Ive Come Here to Chew Bubblegum and Kick ass, and im all outta bubblegum” was never written by Carpenter but was actually ad-libbed by Piper on set. The same line was used for the ultra violent Duke Nukem games too.

The film does suffer one production problem, the alien make up is bad, they look like reject masks from Dan O'Bannon's Return of The Living Dead. This could be due to budget or something else, but for a film made in the latter part of the 80s, they truly are awful.

Now to end my review of They Live and what more can I say, I abso-fucking-lutely love this film, everything in it rules the roost, Roddy Piper, Keith David, The Plot, the style and Carpenters music make this an awesome treat. If you've never seen this film, I urge you to see this film ASAP as it really is a great entertaining sci-fi flick that I hold up with the greats of 80s genre movies. So Remember folks, “You you're ok...this one....real fucking ugly”

FILM:

THEY LIVE: 9/10

Some Essential Carpenter Sci-fi to consider...

STARMAN

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

DARK STAR

THE THING