Retro Review: They Live (1988)

They Live

1988

Cast: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, Raymond St Jacques

Genre: Science Fiction

Worldwide Box Office Gross: over $13 million

Plot: Nada, a wanderer without meaning in his life, discovers a pair of sunglasses capable of showing the world the way it is 

'Reasonable, Yet Underwhelming'

If Mars Attacks meets aspects of Total Recall and throws in a sunglasses gimmick, we would get something such as this. Set in Los Angeles shortly, the rich have got richer whilst the poor and lower class get poorer and become desolate; a construction worker/drifter in John Nada dons a pair of sunglasses after stumbling upon them and through its lenses, he sees subliminal and anti-societal messages and slogans and what they are truly saying about the state of 1980s western society. 

Retitled Invasion Los Angeles, it was produced on a budget of $4 million and grossed U.S $13 million; much like John Carpenter's 1986's Big Trouble in Little China, in recent years They Live has attained a strong, cult following. Based on a short story whilst the concept sounded promising, I found it lacked the subversive irony of Dead Heat, a stronger, memorable villain as Lo Pan in 'Big Trouble...' and Carpenter played things too straight here. Roddy Piper is supposed to be charismatic as the lead Nada but his character's persona isn't well developed; he seemed to have come alive somewhat in the 1990s B-movie action scene by teaming up with the likes of Billy Blanks in some of their offerings. 

The major issue I had with this film was it clings so hard on the premise but it didn't sell it well. There wasn't anything meaningful to say about it, through the main character, whom as the audience, we are supposed to turn to for that. Oddly, then-WWE wrestler Roddy Piper,- who was a hot property in the heydays of the 1980s generation alongside the likes of Hulk Hogan - as Nada seems muted for pretty much the entirety of the run-time and Keith David was okay. The twist with Holly at the end was unexpected and happened too late. It kept banging on and on about capitalism and Reaganomics but the action, and horror aspects could have been more compelling and fully emphasised.

It had a lot of potential and I do see the appeal it has with certain fans and audiences, but with this, it just didn't catch on with me; it's not just the pacing issue but it was so bogged down with a lot of stuff that was, forgettable. There just wasn't enough action sequences to justify it and to keep me invested in the story. 

Had John Carpenter given it as much effort as he did with Big Trouble in Little China, it would have been another cult classic worth remembering as a great and entertaining film. Yet again, we have a movie where it was a case that the concept was better than its execution. 

Final Verdict:

In today's political and socio-economic climate, perhaps They Live is relevant in that sense and playing it off as a cynical piece as a drama which has something to say. Its lack of balance of action, which it could have done a lot more with, characterisation, as straightforward as it is, bland and no- personality characters really ran this movie to the ground. It is a low-key effort; it is not bad but as mentioned I didn't love it as I wanted it to, given how nostalgic it is and how much it has been lauded as a cult classic. 

We could have had something along the lines of Big Trouble in Little China, Dead Heat, The Thing; at least I liked Roddy Piper's mullet in this. 

A-B-movie They Live is for sure. 

Overall: 

image credit: Bakemon