They Live

They Live
by John Carpenter

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DVD details

Actor: George 'Buck' Flower, Keith David, Meg Foster, Peter Jason, Roddy Piper
Director: John Carpenter
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-23
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios

DVD Reviews of They Live

DVD Review: Benjamin Disraeli said it best!
Summary: 5 Stars

This delightfully eerie movie demonstrates that great films are not necessarily pretentious; world-class art can appeal to regular folks; you needn't read John Taylor Gatto to lean the truth about 'Education;" and although you could study "alternative economic history" for months on end at the Yamaguchy website, Mary E. Hobart and David Astle aren't the only reality gurus who can clue you in to what's really going down here on the third stone from the sun. Not at all! John Carpenter manages to do just that in his 95 minute "B-Movie" masterpiece, 'They Live!"

So read the other reviews, form your own opinions, but by all means be sure to see "They Live." And if you are an "art snob" or one of those people who seek cultural justification for pursuing the enjoyable, then consider that what this film divulges is exactly what Benjamin Disraeli had in mind when he penned his cryptic phrase, ""The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." (!)

DVD Review: Sunglasses at Night
Summary: 4 Stars

John Carpenter wrote the screenplay and directed this 1988 Science Fiction/Horror film that is based on Ray Nelson's 1963 short story, Eight O'Clock in the Morning.

With elements of the common hero versus a corrupt society - with ample amounts of wit tossed into the mix - it packs a punch from that time period - the "me" generation and the "greed is good" of the 1980s - but with a twist; the elite are aliens who are managing human society through the use of subliminal media advertising and the manipulation of economic opportunity.

Roddy "Hot Rod" Piper is the hero - Nada - who finds the truth while in Los Angeles by viewing things through a pair of sunglasses. His quest then begins in earnest to convince others of what really propels life.

There is a timeless message in Carpenter's work and Piper turns in a strong performance. "They" may be around in different disguises, but Carpenter shows how the puppeteers can make many shake their hips to the greed twist.

DVD Review: Do you dare to see the truth?
Summary: 5 Stars

Oh man what a fun movie, I saw this a few months ago and still marvel at how much I enjoyed it. This is one of those eighties movies that borderlines on silly and cheesy at times but overall there is so much to enjoy that in this case it barely stands in the way. Basically this is a story of an accidental discovery by a construction worker down on his luck. Trying to find some work, Nada arrives in LA and quickly makes some "friends" and gets in trouble on his first day of work. Eventually he tries to settle in but things seem strange, how strange he has no idea until one day he stumbles on a whole box of black plastic sunglasses. He soon finds out that they are made by a resistance group that send out announcements on TV channels about aliens and warns people that things aren't as they seem. Deem lunatics, they hide and act in secret, but when Nada puts those glasses on he discovers just how much what he believed in is true.

Driven by money and power, people will do anything to have more, even sell out their own species to aliens who are willing to exploit and use them. Those special glasses let Nada see the real aliens, disguised as human to unprotected eye and upon looking at TV shows, magazines and billboards he sees the true message that is meant for the average human; to buy and to obey. One has to see this movie to get the full gist of the idea, but it's something that I have actually felt about today's world for a while. Everything revolves around money, ways of making it, using people for it and luring others to spend their. This movie does a fantastic job of shedding some light on real life and mixes in some ultra terrestrials with incredible twists.

Nada is soon discovered by those who pretend to be human and chased through some really fantastic adventures. There are a few more secrets that make this movie so fun but spoiling them would be a shame, it's best to watch it without knowing too much. I highly recommend for a few hours of shameless fun and the ending is super, very well driven to the point.

- Kasia S.

DVD Review: Intergalactic Robber Barons
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a fun romp of a Sci-Fi movie, where a small band of people in the US find out that the world is being run by invaders that are true Intergalactic industrialist robber barons. Rowdy Roddy Piper stumbles across the underground movement and things get serious fast. Who can you trust and who is in for the big payoff? Especially now, when the economy seems to be faltering, this makes for great entertainment.

DVD Review: A must-have sci-fi classic!
Summary: 5 Stars

In spite of the fact that the film's protagonist, Roddy Piper [Nada], wears his pants too high and gets far too many crotch and butt shots for my liking [the film was shot in 1988, which might explain things], "They Live" is a campy scifi epic about a down-and-out construction worker who finds a pair of sunglasses [cheap sunglasses, actually] that enable him to witness an extraterrestrial invasion of earth.

With this in mind, your suspension of disbelief will be pushed to its limits. But if you hang on loing enough, it just might change the way you view the world.

Orwellian in theme, the film utilizes repetitive and primitive symbols, words and simplistic character sketches to portray a world in the throes of succumbing to brainwave manipulation [think subliminal advertising, which works, by the way], set up by extraterrestrials as a humane way of getting what they want from earth without actually killing anyone.

Everything - except for the aforementioned jeans worn by Nada - remains relevant today. Commercials that attempt to manipulate perception of reality. An overwhelming and omnipresent federal government. Capitalism gone arwry. Selling out everyone for personal gain. The list goes on.

In the end, the film's campiness, lack of subtlety and over-the-top superficiality mirror the very advertising that drowns out our sense of humanity.

So I guess the aliens won, given out current state down here on earth.

Description of They Live

An economic crisis brings unemployed Nada (Roddy Piper) to L.A. in search of work. What he finds instead is that the ruling elite of the world are aliens in disguise, their aim being to keep humans in a state of mindless consumerism. His discovery comes when he dons a pair of special sunglasses made by a resistance group and sees for the first time reality unadorned. Billboards, store signs, magazine covers--all bear subliminal messages to OBEY, to CONSUME, to have NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT. Money itself says THIS IS YOUR GOD. But worst of all, with these glasses you see which of us are really hideous, bug-eyed aliens. The conceptual breakthrough is hilarious while keeping its roots in darker matters. Although some fault the film for settling into its action plot, the ending has a great payoff. And the direction by John Carpenter is handled with superb workmanlike aplomb. One unforgettable set piece has Piper in a back-alley fistfight with a friend who won't put on the glasses that goes on and on, and just when you think it's over it goes another round. One of the most subversive films ever made in Hollywood, They Live was released on the eve of the 1988 elections. The first TV ads had two hideous alien politicians debating, then one accusing the other of being "No John Kennedy!" --Jim Gay

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