Ah, John Carpenter.  Several of his movies rank among my favorites, such as Big Trouble in Little China, The Thing, and this crazy action/ sci-fi/ comedy/ horror/ satire of the Reagan 80's.  They Live stars Rowdy Roddy Piper as a nameless drifter who blows into L.A. looking for work in a badly depressed economy.  He manages to get a job at a construction site where he befriends a fellow construction worker named Frank (Keith David).  Frank takes him back to a rescue mission that runs a sort of shantytown for the homeless and out of work.  Pretty soon, our hero starts noticing a lot of weird stuff, like the a strange man interrupting regular TV broadcast and ranting about “their signal” creating an “artificial reality.”  Piper eventually happens upon a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world as it really is, and discovers that aliens a control the world through mass hypnosis.  Rowdy Roddy then proceeds to do what any sane person would do:  he finds a shotgun and starts killing aliens.

      The scene when Piper first puts on the sunglasses and sees reality is pretty awesome.  The real world is all in black and white, and all signs and other printed matter actually provide subliminal commands to “Obey,” “Marry and Reproduce,” and “Conform.”  Money reads, “This is Your God.”  The movie’s highlight, however, is the scene in which Piper attempts to convince Frank to put on the sunglasses.  This leads to a seven-minute fistfight that becomes funnier the longer its goes on.  Just when you think they’re finally done, they fight some more.  This fight is so awesome that Matt Stone and Trey Parker stole it for the cripple fight on Southpark.  The closing scene is also pretty funny, in addition to containing a totally gratuitous pair of tits.

      Carpenter does a pretty good job of making a good-looking sci-fi action movie on a low budget (dig the leftover props from Ghostbusters.)  There aren’t a whole lot of special effects, just the alien costumes, and a little flying surveillance machine.  The acting is good enough for this kind of movie.  Roddy Piper is a crappy actor, but all he has to do is insult people before he shoots them.  Meg Foster plays a character that obviously exists only to betray the heroes, as evidenced by her freaky-ass bionic eyes.  Look at those things, man!  She could have played Vin Diesel’s part in Pitch Black without the contacts.  She’s obviously evil.  She’s so evil she once played a character named Evil-Lyn.  She’s eee-vill, like the fruits of the dev-ill.

      The weirdest thing about this film is the social satire angle, as the aliens are basically capitalists from outer space, who’ve taken over our world and imposed upon us a capitalist, consumer society.  Of course none of this makes sense.  How are the aliens getting rich if the economy is terrible and everyone is out of work?  If their aim to keep everyone comfortably apathetic to the state of affairs, why have so many people out work, yet still driven to consume?  That would most likely breed class hatred, seething rage and resentment.  The whole capitalism is bad theme is so ludicrously handled that it’s hard to believe John Carpenter takes it seriously.  I think he just threw it in here to make this movie that much stranger, to give it that special soupcon of weirdness that sets his films apart.

      In short, They Live is awesome.  It has almost everything a lover of bad movies could want:  explosions, absurd fistfights, one of the best death scenes ever, gratuitous titties, Republicans from outer space, and Rowdy Roddy Piper.  Watch it.  I command it.