Day 71 -- They Live

Released: November 4th, 1988
    
Starring: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster
 
Writer/Director: John Carpenter

Description: A drifter discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to wake up to the fact that aliens have taken over the Earth.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

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This morning, I decided that I would make this week "Wrestlemania Week", and watch movies starring professional wrestlers. I've found some great ones, but I won't be spoiling the selection. Obviously, pro wrestlers are the ultimate example of let's hire someone just to make money. In some cases they are good, and in others, they are just their persona for 90 minutes. So to celebrate the self-proclaimed "Grandaddy of Them All", I will suffer through some awful movies just for you.

What better way to start this week, than with John Carpenter's cult classic (Maybe?) "They Live". The movie stars Rowdy Roddy Piper, who was one of the biggest personality in the WWF at the time, and throughout most of the mid-to-late 80s. Parodies of the film are prevalent, but probably go unrecognized, with the most notable occurring on "South Park". The Jimmy-Timmy fight was a shot-for-shot remake of the Roddy Piper-Keith David tussle in this movie. Also, I've heard people say the famous line, 'I came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubble gum', and have no idea where it's from. It's rare that a well-parodied film is so relativity unknown.

The action of the film is your standard John Carpenter, and it makes just as much sense. The action is over the top, the dialogue is poorly delivered at times, but the ending is amazing. The final scenes are one of the more enjoyable things in his movies with "Escape from New York" and "Big Trouble in Little China" immediately coming to mind. But he also tends to use his films to project some social commentary to his audience.

He tackles the issue of the consumer culture in "They Live". The story revolves around the theme that an alien race has populated Earth and is using consumerism and wealth to control humans. So with every totalitarian regime there's always something that will take them down, so in this alternate L.A., the weapon of choice is Ray-Ban Sunglasses. 

Does anyone else find it hypocritical to use a popular brand of sunglasses to defeat an alien race using people's tendency to buy brand name things? Or was that the point, and Carpenter purposely picked that contradiction?

Going in I remembered that the acting wasn't even remotely good, and it didn't disappoint. This is not meant to be taken as an insult, but Roddy Piper was at his best when he wasn't talking. He was able to express the right emotions just through body language, but when he had to deliver a line he was oddly wooden, especially since he'd done hundreds of "promos" as a wrestler. Even the bubble gum line was not perfectly read, and you would think a catchphrase like that would be perfect for a wrestler.

The rest of the cast was pretty awful with the exception of Keith David, who was his usually bad-ass looking self. He was the perfect compliment to Piper because he is what you would call a professional actor. Any misstep made by the inexperienced actor -- possibly untrained actor -- could be balanced by David natural talents as a performer.

"They Live" is campy fun. For those who love John Carpenter's films, this one is a must watch, just for the ridiculousness of the plot. Piper is admirable in it, and doesn't ruin the movie. It is a unique look into the how the concerns of Americans in the 80s are not that different than todays worries, and that we aren't living in a time without a parallel.

Rating: 4/10 -- Great movie to watch while drinking with your friends; not unlike every other John Carpenter movie. The best part of the film is Roddy Piper's totally 80s hair.