Two things that I really enjoyed growing up: 1. John Carpenter movies & 2. Pro Wrestling. The 80's were a great time for both. So when you put one of the best directors of the decade with one of the best known wrestlers of the decade, good things are bound to happen right?
First, a little about my love of pro wrestling. My dad encouraged watching pro wrestling in a way. He was always turning the channel to wrestling on a boring Saturday evening, and Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen were always lurking about. Dad was only a mild fan though. He mainly only wanted to hear the outrageous trash talk that always went on. He would often mimic Ric Flair just to have a little fun with me. So we'd watch wrestling together from time to time. I'd root for the good guys, dad would root for the bad guys and fun was had by all. It also didn't hurt that the WWF had a Saturday morning cartoon either. This exposed me to guys like Hulk Hogan, Junkyard Dog, The Iron Sheik, and of course, Rowdy Roddy Piper. Needless to say, I got bit by the wrestling bug and remain a fan even to this day. Though pro wrestling isn't what it used to be.
My love of John Carpenter movies developed mainly through his work with Kurt Russell but that's a discussion for another time.
Roddy Piper is a lot of fun to watch in this one. And Keith David is a great companion for him. I wish this formidable pair would have gotten on the same page sooner though. Imagine how much more bad ass this movie could have been with Piper and David wreaking havoc from the start. Instead they wasted a lot of their energy kicking each other's ass, when they should have been hunting down some illegal aliens. And I don't mean Mexicans or Columbians either. I'm talking extra terrestrial, from another planet aliens that are up to illegal doings. Or are they? Piper learns later in the movie how bad these aliens are but he really doesn't know at first. Instead, he finds out about them and starts opening fire. No hesitation here. If you're not human, you're dead. Doesn't sound very tolerant of the Rowdy one does it? Later in the movie, it's mentioned that humans are like livestock. To me, that implies that they're food at least in some small capacity. They also get blamed for societies woes, so I guess Piper did have some right to fire at will. I mean, it wasn't like President Obama was around at the time to blame for all the shut down factories and police brutality. No, these aliens are clearly out to corrupt mankind, steal our natural resources and possibly eat a few of us. As a fan of the television show V, I can't help but notice some of the similarities here either. Alien invaders sucking our planet dry, dining on humans, lying to our faces. With the main difference being that in V, the visitor's were out in the open while in They Live, the aliens are hiding through some form of hypnotic means. And they've been here pretty much since the 50's.
Piper's character exposes them at the end of the film. At least in the Los Angeles area. And it sort of just ends there. Someone tell Mr. Carpenter to pick out another wrestler and write up a sequel. I can't be the only one that's wondering if the resistance grew from there can I? We can't erase some 30 plus years of alien occupation just by cutting a local L.A. television signal can we? I mean, this movie was left more open than Independence Day was.
GRADE: B
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