They Live (Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]

John Carpenter’s They Live is a cult classic that never loses its impact, no matter how many times you watch it. The nostalgia hits hard, bringing back memories of late night movie marathons and the thrill of discovering its deeper themes.The action is fantastic, with Roddy Piper delivering intense fight scenes, including the legendary alley brawl that feels just as raw and entertaining today. The film’s one liners are iconic, especially the unforgettable, “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.”Beyond the action, the film’s social commentary remains eerily relevant, making each rewatch feel fresh. If you love 80s sci-fi, gripping action, and sharp satire, They Live is a must see that never gets old! Highly recommended for fans of Carpenter’s work and classic dystopian thrillers!

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"They Live" is a cultural touchstone and everyone should see it. Not just film fans, but everyone. There will be some spoilers in this review, but then again there are spoilers right on the cover if you know the context of the image.What's the story? An unnamed blue-collar man walks into a city. He tries to get a job in 1980's America, where it's clear the deck is stacked against him. It's clear this film has a pro-labor liberal bent. Eventually another worker offers him a place to stay in a sort of homeless encampment in the park. Our hero begins to notice odd events in the city, uncovering a plot to destroy the encampment and possibly even the human race. Action ensues. It's impossible to say more without getting into spoilers, so expect spoilers from here on. Just see it. There's a big explosion in the end, just like you'd expect from a good old action film.Who's in it? "Rowdy" Roddie Piper, a professional wrestler, plays the lead. Director John Carpenter allowed Roddie to improvise some very memorable lines. The director and actor play off each other to perfection. PIper's lack of acting skill makes him come across perfectly as a real person in this world. Carpenter gives Piper few lines, so when Piper does speak, his hammy pro wrestling lines play like Clint Eastwood one-liners. It's brilliant. Secondary performances from Keith David and Meg Foster are absolutely top-rate.What's so great about it? John Carpenter oozes style. From the Wild West musical scores with their droning basslines, to the quirky one-liners, to the outrageousness of key scenes - this film is iconic. The effects shots are tremendous. When the hero puts on his Ray-Ban sunglasses to reveal the alien plot, the black-and-white effects shots are visually disjointed from the rest of the film and really convey the shift in perspective. A quick effects shot of a stop-motion flying saucer device spying on the hero are so out-of-place to the colorful world of the rest of the film. It makes for far more effective horror movie in my mind. The acting is largely great. So we have direction, effects, and acting. What more do you want?Why is it enduring? The film has so many great moments. Roddy's infamous line in the bank regarding bubblegum absolutely can't be missed. The alien reveal scenes - CONSUME, OBEY - are political commentary which are if anything more relevant in 2020 than when the film released. The fight scene between Piper and David remains one of the longest continuous mano-e-mano fights in cinema history. It has weight, it feels real, and the crazy length of the scene really grinds home on many metaphorical levels. To sample just one - these two homeless bums are fighting each other desperately just because one of them has tried to bring back a message of hope. They're fighting each other, rather than fighting "the man". It has echoes that go all the way back to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Yes, I'm happy to say this film deals in Greek philosophy.Overall, this is an absolute classic. Some of the major plot scenes are among the greatest scenes in cinema history. The alien reveal, the brawl, and the bank scene are all regular appearances on lists of greatest moments in cinema history. Sure, the overall alien plot gets a little thin toward the end. The final act can be a bit underwhelming - they blow up one satellite dish and that somehow solves everything? But you can tell this was a relatively low-budget production, and for what they accomplished, the movie punches above its weight. I love it. You should too.

This movie is a SciFi depiction about Secret Societies and the way they operate that I review about on Secret Messages: Concealment, Codes, and Other Types of Ingenious Communication.The author probably find out about it and decided to write a screenplay to portrait and maybe make sense of what he discover. And from the way the movie portrait that they do not know how long the Aliens been around, I can tell that the author does not know as much as I do about these secret societies.It is a very good depiction of secret societies. All you have to do is replace "Aliens" with "Secret Societies" & the "Sunglass" that allow the wearer to see the Aliens with a "Secret Message Translator" that allow you to understand these Secret Societies and you are pretty close to it.When I saw this movie over 20 years ago, I sense some truth to it but was not able to grasp the whole truth. After 20 years I was able to put it on the review mentioned above.If you watch this movie and like it, then I would recommend you read my review mentioned above to further stimulate your mind from the stimulation you already got in this movie.This movie is one of those movie you would want to keep in your movie collections.Update 4/16/2013I finally got the Blu-ray Version of "They Live" from Amazon on Feb.12, 2013. I tried to get it a few years back but the Blu-ray version was out of production and the only one available was costing $50-$60. I wanted it as a collection because of the story and what it represents, but the movie itself was not really extra-ordinary.The quality of the pictures is excellent. But that is to be expected from a release this later version where they have perfected the Hi-Definition transfer of film. If you get earlier version of Blu-ray of any movie, sometime it is not all it crack up to be because they were still new in adapting and perfecting the Blu-ray technology.After watching the movie, I notice that this is not the director cut version. And that the "They Live" movie that I saw originally on television must have been a director cut version. An example is that on the scene where all the humans who had the gadgets to see the aliens assemble at a meeting and they were raided by the police, this Blu-ray version only has the aliens having prune faces. But in the director cuts, the aliens had prune faces but some also look like monster with tentacles sticking out of their heads like Medusa.And this movie looks so much like what I review on Secret Messages: Concealment, Codes, and Other Types of Ingenious Communication. The following are some example in this movie of the uncanny similarity:1) the aliens are said to be extra-terrestrial businessman just exploiting earth. Where as in real life, the secret society also consider themselves to be businessman.2) In the liquor store where Nada (Roddy Piper) put on the sunglasses and see these aliens, the aliens said "we have one that can see". But in real life, when I notice the secret coded language of the secret society, they say "He understands", not knowing that I understand the general ideas & concept and not the nitty gritty. As my brain is too busy thinking of what kind of plausible deniability tactics to deal with these people who practice plausible deniability, with this gibberish they call a language/code, according to Newton's 3rd Law. And the last thing on your mind is communication when you see a rattlesnake.3) In the bank when Roddy Piper were shooting and killing these aliens, an alien in the bank can just disappear, which we later find out by using his special watch. But in real life, these secret society members can just disappear and blend into society by using the coded word, not in the coded meaning, but in regular language whether it is English, French, Spanish, Chinese, etc.4) When Roddy Piper discovers the existence of these aliens, he was so disgusted with them that he kills a whole bunch of these aliens. And in real life, when I discover the existence of this secret society, I was so disgusted with them, from the troubles, attitudes, lies, slanders & problems I experienced from these trouble makers since elementary school, that I write the review of Secret Messages: Concealment, Codes, and Other Types of Ingenious Communication to expose this secret society.However the writer of this movie portraits that they don't know how long the aliens have been around, demonstrating that the writer just learned about the secret society recently or not long enough to know more details about them when writing the movie script for "They Live". Where as in real life, the secret society claims to have been around during Jesus Christ existence and had fellowship with Jesus Christ. Due to similarity item #3 above, attempts to eradicate this secret society/underground society for over 2000 years have all been in vain. Like a hydra, once you cut off one head, two more will grow in it's place. To the present time where they are all over the world in almost every continent on Earth.One might think that this is just a coincident that the existence of the secret society and this movie is similar. But I am sure that the author of this movie writes this movie script as a way to express his discovery of secret society.This is a movie that everyone must see at least once, if not to keep as a collection, whether they believe this is a cult classic or not.