It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

31 Days of Spookoween: DAY EIGHTEENFilm #18: They Live (1988)Review: Inhale, exhale, and dive right in to this insane action packed thriller of a horror comedy! Tons of genres are squished into one, wholly enjoyable 90 minutes that not only excites with its sometimes creepy visuals and intense (and hilarious) action sequences, but also provokes with its satirical edge. "They Live" is a film made memorable and immortal not only because of its entertainment value and abundance of fun scenes, but also because of its sharp social commentary that is almost Orwellian in nature. Tons has already been said about this movie, and it really is a film worth watching right away as a review cannot truly encapsulate how much excitement and intrigue this film really contains. It's wonderfully made, wittily written, and damningly (if somewhat obviously) critical of American politics, society, consumerism, and so on.

After receiving his major bill with a 25 Million Dollar production of "Big Trouble in Little China" from Twentieth Century Fox in the season 1985/1986, Director John Carpenter turned to his sophisticated B-Movie roots, who look like A-Lister, with an high-conceptual script of aliens, or are it just dead-inside people, who conquered the world of financing and the government in "They Live" from the late 1980s, when the Grindhouse double bill at major city movie houses slowly faded away from the landscape of invading home video cassettes and cable TV.Director John Carpenter holds all strings on this 4 Million Dollar production, engaging surprisingly authentic playing wrestler Roddy Piper with his solid sidekick actor Keith David, who enter the headquarters of "Them" as an Army of Two by killing off everyone in their path under machine gun fire to the menacing public TV broadcasting stationary room, fine-tuned by additional extreme-close-ups of barrel fire, which builds a throughout straight-to-finish racing editorial with nothing to wish for then being indulged into low-budget movie-making. Nevertheless the director has the gift to translate seemingly trashy screenplay into well-crafted motion picture, which easily transformed the production values of downtown Los Angeles shot-on-location sights into a tripling revenue at the U.S. domestic box office in Winter 1988/1989, which comes at no surprise, because the leading character struggling, yet calm and reserved drifter called Nada, who is about to enter an adventure of a life-time in order to fulfill his destiny to die for, saving the world from total subconsciously obedience, had spoken the U.S. working society from the heart.In retrospective, "They Live" has nothing lost of his engaging cult status, where in 2017 social structure are seemingly unchanged to the point that everything you have been able to buy at a grocery store in 1988 as food, drink, as to speak booze, and tobacco, has been available to this very day without questioning the inconvenient truth that the quality of the common food has been decreased to a level of lab-gene artificiality and further prices forced by inevitable inflation of international currencies making the work-purchase-relationship from day-to-day basis harder to conceive. In a sense, the movie's underlining criticism on a global society divided by currency, power and inter-human connection has become victim to the exposure of a director, who tediously trained his craft of cinematic visualization to at times astounding precision, but lacks the spark of a mind-binding twisting spectacle premise shot.Even though John Carpenter has been given another 50 Million U.S. Dollar budget by Paramount Picture in season 1995/1996 to realize the undeniable sequel to his arguably best film directed at the age of 32 "Escape from New York", starring Kurt Russell in the role of, timelessly connected character to motion picture history, Snake Plissken, which leaves "They Live" as a director-driven picture that without a doubt comes full circle by the end of fast-dropped curtains.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I don't usually write reviews but i must warn people about this movie. I am a fan of John Carpenter, The Fog and The Thing are both excellent movies, this is terrible. The title of the movie.. They Live maybe could have been "They live along side us but they arnt really doing anything". The film just doesn't go anywhere, i wish i had watched the x-files instead.Stay away!!!

John Carpenter is one of my all time favorite Directors. I grew up watching his movies, but missed this one until I saw it on TV when I was in my early 30's. Everything about this movie is awesome! Surprising is Roddy Piper was really good for a guy who was a former pro wrestler. Davied Keith was excellent as well, he is such an underrated actor. The two played the "buddy" duo very well. Piper and Keith's 5 minute fight scene is epic alone. I also love the soundtrack, it's very edgy. I bought this movie on Blu ray from Shout Factory and it is an excellent transfer both video and audio. I highly recommend it for your home theater library.