They Live - Collectors Edition DVD

Released in November of 1988, director John Carpenter's They Live may be the film of its generation. Well, if it's not then it's pretty close. John Carpenter is mostly known for the box office smash hit Halloween (1978) and as great as that film is (it's my favorite film), They Live is proof that the horror master had more to offer, along with a lot of other gems like Escape From New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble In Little China (1986), In The Mouth Of Madness (1995), Escape From L.A. (1996) and Vampires (1998), They Live ranks on the list of his best films. What makes Carpenter so unique is that he really understood where Hollywood was heading during the late 70s and most of the 80s and for a short period of time he got his taste of Hollywood. He then realized that it simply only cares about making money and he spent the rest of his career as a true independent, not following any rules and making movies the way that he wanted to. Carpenter was riding on the success of Halloween, which was in its day the highest grossing independent film ever made. Escape From New York was another hit movie and by this time he was getting major studio offerings. He then directed his first big studio picture The Thing. This film was expected to be a commercial hit but unfortunately, the film was a disaster and was even considered one of the most hated films by critics and audiences alike. Although The Thing has found a cult audience over the years, it was the film that launched a series of commercial failures from the director. Carpenter was feeling frustrated with the way the studio system was heading so he decided to make a film that expressed this which is where They Live comes in. This film may be one of the bravest movies in its day. During the 1980s, we were being told to do nothing but consume. This film is a study of the world being corrupt by the media and how it tells us to simply not care and just make tons of money. The middle class are portrayed as villains in the film and that being rich and successful is the only way to be happy while poor working class people are being treated as useless. We all believe that fame and fortune is what makes us somebody but Carpenter wasn't about to become a sell out and instead he dealt with his frustration by making this film and when you look at it now you can't help but think what an honest direction that was to go in. But this movie isn't just for deep thinkers, it is also a kick ass sci-fi action movie and it's a lot of fun too. Sure, the movie is goofy at times and very B movie material but to me that's a positive aspect, I think that was the perfect way to portray the story. I would put this movie up there with A Clockwork Orange (1971) even, as pretentious as that sounds. Read more

A really good movie.. the fighting seen was dumb but overall a good movie. Lots hidden messages in the movie! Give a watch Read more

Great cult classic sic-fi film. I think this film was ahead of its time, but also timeless in many ways. The overarching plot, themes, undertones, and overtones all match up with things people are just beginning to piece together now, in fragments. At the same time, there are very memorable segues containing action and very classic one-liners that have been paid homage to in many TV shows and Hollywood films ever since, but you probably didn't realize they came from this film. With such a low budget, they had to be very creative, and you would never guess this from the visual/AV production, which looks as good as anything big budget. But through that creativity a lot of novel ideas appeared in this film before their times. A film, "Branded", which fell through the cracks and received poor reviews, did similar things, nearly 25 years later. And yet, this film was on average highly praised by critics. Like most great films, it's best watched if you don't watch trailers, don't read about it on the internet, and don't spoil it for yourself; just go wit the flow. And a great flow it has. In some ways, perhaps in another universe, you can easily see from his sci-fi work that Carpenter would have been a top notch director for big budget films of the time, like Terminator 2, etc; but he stuck to what he wanted to do and the messages he wanted to get across. One other analogy that comes to mind when watching this film, not so much in content or plot, but conceptually, is Idiocracy. If you enjoyed that film, you will probably dig this a lot. Idiocracy made such great social commentary that it was well finished, and a great film, but ultimately the studio dropped all marketing money and efforts, because they feared alienating their core (masses) base of TV viewers. In other words, they thought the film was too intelligent to show. You get that feeling here; the film did well (made a profit), got great reviews, etc, but is scarcely heard of. Definitely worth a watch if you are a sci-fi fan. Some of the best stuff came out of the very late 80s going into the big progressive world of the 90s (especially for sci-fi; Star Trek: TNG, anyone?); a time which is only really paralleled in recent history by the 60s. This film may have fallen through the cracks, but thankfully, Amazon has it available in its catalogue for rental! Read more

Great movie Wish it was cheaper Read more