You'll love this movie if you love the following things: rock climbing, free climbing, tower climbing, towers, best friends, husbands, dead husbands, driving, climbing, ladders, lack of ladders, broken ladders, falling ladders, deserts, dads, sad dads, angry dads, hot dads, dads with beards, cell phones, broken cell phones, the Internet, the lack of Internet, cell coverage, lack of cell coverage, bolts, too many bolts, not enough bolts, broken bolts, rust, wind, foot tattoos, water bottles, not enough water bottles, rope, rope that's juuuuust too short, TV towers, lights, charging hacks, life hacks, weird guys living in a trailer, weird guys stealing a truck, dogs, buzzards, killer buzzards, leg wounds, gangrene, hair ties, shoes, throwing shows, jamming shoes into corpses, fighting birds, killing birds, eating birds, pushing dead best friends off of towers, drones, broken drones, semis, semis that hit drones, semi drivers, motels, 10 a.m. Check out times, diners that don't have free electricity, batteries, low batteries, batteries that last forever, home videos, plots, plot twists, plot holes, stomach holes, hot girls, cleavage, flare guns, binoculars, ribs, cold beer, wedding rings, cheating, the numbers 1 4 and 3, rescue dads, rescue helicopters, police, ambulances, going home without any medical treatment, possible e-coli, falling, lack of falling, almost getting hit by a semi, husband's cremated ashes, bagged ashes, scattering ashes, drinking too much, not drinking enough, pills, too many pills, hangovers, crying, too much crying, nightmares and feet.
Reviews
3 Reviews
They Live
(1988)
Relevant Message in a Bad, Bad Movie
8 February 2022
If I had reviewed this film when I first saw it as a 17 year old, I would have been singing its praises. My memory tells me that it was a funny, action-packed film with a pretty important message about how society is controlled and controlling. If I had never re-watched this movie 33 years later, I would have gone on thinking that it was a good, fun, entertaining film. But... it's not. I'm not sure how it merits such a high rating--I guess that most of the reviewers are either teenagers seeing it for the first time, or adults seeing it through the lens of nostalgia.
So, what's wrong with this movie? Besides the interesting concept and relevant message... it's bad. There's no other way to put it. It starts off bad with a very boring, bland and dated setting. The music, which is usually good in Carpenter films, is grating, like a 70s porn soundtrack. The cast is mostly mediocre, 80s actors who weren't all that good at the time. The worst, of course, is the star: Roddy Piper. But perhaps it isn't the acting that's bad... maybe it's the script. Cheesy and stilted dialogue and juvenile one-liners that sounded smart when I was a kid... but they just sound dumb to my adult ears now. There are too many bad lines to share.
So... it's bad. Bad film-work, bad sets, bad dialogue, bad casting, bad acting, bad costumes, bad effects. If you were to look up the term "dated", this movie would fit. It has NOT aged well.
So, what's wrong with this movie? Besides the interesting concept and relevant message... it's bad. There's no other way to put it. It starts off bad with a very boring, bland and dated setting. The music, which is usually good in Carpenter films, is grating, like a 70s porn soundtrack. The cast is mostly mediocre, 80s actors who weren't all that good at the time. The worst, of course, is the star: Roddy Piper. But perhaps it isn't the acting that's bad... maybe it's the script. Cheesy and stilted dialogue and juvenile one-liners that sounded smart when I was a kid... but they just sound dumb to my adult ears now. There are too many bad lines to share.
So... it's bad. Bad film-work, bad sets, bad dialogue, bad casting, bad acting, bad costumes, bad effects. If you were to look up the term "dated", this movie would fit. It has NOT aged well.
Inaccurate and rife with lies and errors
23 October 2018
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