A lot of the gushing reviews of this film seem to concentrate almost entirely on 'its message and its relevance'. Ok, the core concept - a homeless man finds a pair of sunglasses which allow him to see an alien species living amongst us and sending out subliminal messages to control us - is reasonably intriguing, if not exactly spectacularly original. I can imagine how this may of been better received in the Reagan-era 1980s however the idea of an elite class using the media to condition and control the masses hardly makes for groundbreaking stuff reviewing this here in 2021.
Aside from that, pretty much everything else about this B-movie sci-fi actioner is dismal. The characters are flat, the acting is wooden, the direction is all over the place and the dialogue is bizarre and only funny in an "Oh my God this is so bad" sort of way. If this was genuinely supposed to be an attempt at satire then John Carpenter fell flat on his face. Good satire is delivered with a knowing wink which both the filmmakers and the audience are aware of and can share the joke. I was just confused most of the time watching this film. My partner actually said out loud "What the Hell is going on?!!" during the fight scene between Rod Piper and Keith David. Why did it last so long? Why was it so excessively violent? Why did both men walk away practically unscathed when in reality they'd both be in hospital afterwards? Ok I know it's an 80s action scene but come on, even the various Arnie vehicles of the 1980s were more believable than this and that's saying something!
I give this 3 out of 10, purely because I'm sure worse films exist, I rate Keith David as an actor and he was the only talent in this, and as I said the core concept is reasonably interesting. I seriously wouldn't waste your time on this though unless you have a fetish for really bad cult films.
Aside from that, pretty much everything else about this B-movie sci-fi actioner is dismal. The characters are flat, the acting is wooden, the direction is all over the place and the dialogue is bizarre and only funny in an "Oh my God this is so bad" sort of way. If this was genuinely supposed to be an attempt at satire then John Carpenter fell flat on his face. Good satire is delivered with a knowing wink which both the filmmakers and the audience are aware of and can share the joke. I was just confused most of the time watching this film. My partner actually said out loud "What the Hell is going on?!!" during the fight scene between Rod Piper and Keith David. Why did it last so long? Why was it so excessively violent? Why did both men walk away practically unscathed when in reality they'd both be in hospital afterwards? Ok I know it's an 80s action scene but come on, even the various Arnie vehicles of the 1980s were more believable than this and that's saying something!
I give this 3 out of 10, purely because I'm sure worse films exist, I rate Keith David as an actor and he was the only talent in this, and as I said the core concept is reasonably interesting. I seriously wouldn't waste your time on this though unless you have a fetish for really bad cult films.