They Live

[Chinatown Kid]

Anybody remember this John Carpenter flick starring Roddy Piper which features aliens in human disguise? Piper finds this special sunglasses he puts on and discovers he can see the aliens true faces then tries to convince everybody else. Roddy and Keith David have one hell of a brawl in an alley that's one of my all time favorite fights.

[teako170]

Anybody remember this John Carpenter flick starring Roddy Piper which features aliens in human disguise? Piper finds this special sunglasses he puts on and discovers he can see the aliens true faces then tries to convince everybody else. Roddy and Keith David have one hell of a brawl in an alley that's one of my all time favorite fights.

Oh man, I almost forgot about this one.
Yeah that fight was a knock-down-drag-out brawl!

Last time I saw this, it was on the tellie... 4-5-6 years ago??

[GwaiLoMoFo]

Classic b-movie fare, but highly enjoyable. I remember being thuroughly creeped out when they slipped on the glasses and revealed how many aliens there were already among them. And that brawl is a classic/

[KUNG FU BOB]

"I am here to kick ass, and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

;)

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I saw this when I was a kid and I remember that brutal fight in the alley, but other than that I thought it was just slightly above average. Keith David is one of my favorite actors so if he wasn't in the movie I probably wouldn't have liked it too much.

[David Rees]

Great film , especially the first hour but then just runs out of steam.:l


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[Markgway]

Just out on BD in the UK - but BEWARE it's apparently an Standard-def upconversion and NOT true HD.

OK movie.

[Chinatown Kid]

"I am here to kick ass, and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

;)


Ha ha, I remember this quote too along with that one Bob: "Mama don't like tattletails." ;) Piper was pretty cool in this flick. I used to like his antics as a pro wrestler as well, when he was playing a heel he would come out wearing the quilt skirt and play the bagpipes and everyone would boo lol.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Ha ha, I remember this quote too along with that one Bob: "Mama don't like tattletails." ;) Piper was pretty cool in this flick. I used to like his antics as a pro wrestler as well, when he was playing a heel he would come out wearing the quilt skirt and play the bagpipes and everyone would boo lol.

Sorry to go off topic, but Rowdy also had a (much more entertaining IMO) role in the US Sonny Chiba flick IMMORTAL COMBAT, where he has plenty more lines that are B-movie treasures. Chiba was getting on in the years by this point, but was still cool as ever, and fast as Hell in this. As a cop, he fights a bunch of guys on a stairwell using the back edge of a sword, and it's typical Sonny, but without shaky cam.

I think THEY LIVE is like many Carpenter films, in that is has a solid, interesting idea, that never reaches it's potential. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is the same way- it's definitely cool fun, but it's certainly not the movie it could have been. The cast, sets, and story left plenty of room for inspired direction, but it just isn't always there. The shots of the aliens everywhere were unnerving, and the fight was fun, but kinda stupid at the same time. A little too phony. There were much better US choreographed fight going on in stateside cinema at the time- Nick Nolte fighting Eddie Murphy in 48 HOURS, Arnold vs Vernon Wells or against huge, bald, "This Green Beret's gonna kick your big ass" guy in COMMANDO...

IMO J. Carpenter's THE THING is his best movie by far, followed by HALLOWEEN, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, and PRINCE OF DARKNESS is really underrated.

I personally can't wait for the remake that's coming of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Maybe this one will fully realize the story's potential. Though, no one will ever be "Snake" like Kurt Russell!

[teako170]

I personally can't wait for the remake that's coming of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Maybe this one will fully realize the story's potential. Though, no one will ever be "Snake" like Kurt Russell!

Aw man, really? Thought EFNY was phenomenal. It was EFLA where things got cheesy.
I know, I know. I'm probably a bit biased growing up in NYC.
I'm sure if it was Escape from PHILLY, it would have been all good. :p :) :p

[Tosh]

Yeah this was a cool b movie, the end were Piper flicks off the camera after blowing up the dish is classic.

I think most of Carpenter's movies ran out of steam towards the end because of lack of budget, except Prince of Darkness which was pretty horrible through out:p Not that I still didn't like it.

[Alex]

They Live is much more than a bmovie, its one of the best satires of 80s consumerism made to date

[KUNG FU BOB]

Aw man, really? Thought EFNY was phenomenal. It was EFLA where things got cheesy.
I know, I know. I'm probably a bit biased growing up in NYC.
I'm sure if it was Escape from PHILLY, it would have been all good. :p :) :p

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a BIG fan of EFNY. I just think it had so many near-classic moments that could have easily been classic moments.
Also, it has one of the coolest movie posters ever (even though it was "bull****" in that the scene wasn't really in the movie!).

I saw EFLA at the drive-in, and HATED it. I angrily threw popcorn... but it all just hit my windshield and the dashboard. :S

You know I lived ESCAPE FROM PHILLY, I just didn't bother to film it! LOL XD

I agree with Alex's comment on THEY LIVE. But like I said, great ideas...
Another guy who's films have the "huge potential, but didn't fully realize it on screen" problem is David Cronenberg. Again, I'm a huge fan. But SCANNERS could have been the greatest film of the 80's, but it just fell short too many times. Just some of his films though. He also made some perfect films: THE FLY, DEAD ZONE, DEAD RINGERS, THE BROOD (which no one seems to have seen, but is one of the scariest films -to me- that I've ever seen).

[daTOAD]

To this day, the best fight scene in an American film IMHO.Love this movie.

[Chinatown Kid]

You know, I saw Roddy Piper and Billy blanks in a film back in the 90's and for the life of me can't remember the title. I would like to see it again though because it had some pretty good fight action in it. Piper was also in something called Hell Comes to Frogtown but I never saw that one.

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

Escape From New York is a great film, though it started off that mellow-dramatic whispery 'gayness' ( ie Matrix etc.) tough guy talk that is so rampant on tv and in film today. It dosen't ruin EFNY for me though. Kurt pulls it off. The Thing on the other hand, is hands down, one of my all time favorite sci-fi flix. They Live is definitely an entertaining film, yet I agree dose'nt reach it's full potential, in the end anyway.