Workman Nada comes to town, and the town does not agree with him. He gets a poor job in construction, and needs to live in a camp on a deserted patch in the middle of town. There is a church, and the church is apprently the centre of some resistance against a government and media conspiracy. When fleeing from a raid, Nada stumbles across a set of sunglasses that allow him to actually distinguish the invaders from the humans. He joins the resistance and kicks some alien butt, together with co-worker Frank and Holly, a tv station employee.
Continuation of the John Carpenter marathon – I liked that one when it came out at the time, and watching it again, I see why. Carpenter is extremely aware of the humour he can use in his films, which I believe is tricky in horror / supernatural / alien invasion movies. Carpenter knows something about it, so even in a silly nonsense invasion movie like They Live, there are scenes of hilarious comedy, in particular the effort of the lead buddies to beat the shit out of each other to get to an agreement on whether or not Frank follows Nada on his quest.
The film is incredibly blunt in its message of all our consumption desires and emptiness being part of a giant plot of Earth leaders with Alien leaders… ok, we get it, we shouldn’t, we should rather, er… get in barfights occassionally or kidnap cute girls. Will do, Sir! The lead actor was clearly designed to replace Kurt Russell as Carpenter’s muse, even though that apparently did not work out. But fun watching, a Russell clone with muscles. And you know what is the difference between me and you? These sunglases make me look cool! (ah no, different film).
thomas4cinema 