Review of They Live (1988) by Davey M — 14 Oct 2009

This movie features the line, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." If you need to know anything else about why you should see this movie, then maybe you shouldn't see this movie.

The plot concerns an alien invasion that only our stalwart, bubblegumless heroes and their comrades can see (courtesy of some specially engineered sunglasses)--it's sort of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" meets "The Matrix." But this is the sort of movie "The Matrix" might have been if it had ever acknowledged how utterly silly it was--there's satirical, conspiracy-theory-minded commentary on conservative Reagan-era politics (the signs proclaiming "Obey," "Stay Asleep," and, my favorite, "Marry and Reproduce" are a delight), and one of the longest scenes in the film is a fistfight between Roddy Piper and Keith David that is entirely unnecessary and meaningless and (consequently) really, really funny, as more and more ridiculously pholeyed punches are thrown to an absolutely useless end. In some ways, it's the action movie as absurdism.

Director John Carpenter's cool, jazzy score (he co-wrote it with Alan Howarth) and the excellent photography immediately set a tone of understated self-awareness that serves the film well (even the opening credits are incredibly simple, and unexpectedly classy). The beautifully-crafted, quiet mystery and suspense of the first act paves the way for the unnervingly spooky and startlingly funny sight of these skully-headed aliens, the silly-but-thrilling action scenes (Carpenter's visual sense is terrific, and always at the service of the material, no matter how zany), Piper's awesome punchlines (delivered with appropriately awkward silliness, intentional or not), some oddly compelling characters and performances (Raymond St. Jacques' street prophet is riveting, all the more so because by the time the credits roll we still don't know much about him), and a perfectly bizarre conclusion (the final shot is hilarious). "They Live" is a one-of-a-kind movie--and that's a good thing.