It's amazing how a topical film from around 25 years ago still feels topical today.  Today's film is They Live, a movie that I've seen before.  Why am I finally reviewing it then?  Well, the film has gotten more play in the last year with a new DVD/Blu-Ray release and a series of jokes in Saints Row IV about it.  Seriously, the game has Keith David as the Vice-President who must escape a manufactured World run by aliens.  Who helps him?  Roddy Piper, of course!  It's brilliant.  For neophytes, Live is a 1987 John Carpenter film about a man named Nada who doesn't seem to quite fit in.  When he stumbles across a box full of cheap sunglasses (not to be confused with the ZZ Top song), things change and he discovers a purpose for his life.  Can he save us all or will we just end up being overrun by the aliens?  To find out, read on...
Nada (Piper) arrives in the big city looking for work.  He has skills, but he still can't catch a break.
There is a mysterious person preaching on TV about people being controlled.  He finds it suspicious and stumbles across his lair.  They get raided by the Cops, however, and he finds a box full of black sunglasses.

All I find are bags of money.  Damn my bad luck!
When he wears them, he sees the truth.  We are being controlled by the audio-visual aspects of the world and our World is full of freaky alien guys.

The aliens don't take kindly to their plot being found out.
Oh joy- Meg Foster and her too-light eyes are here.  This one of those films that makes people just not trust her.

Oh yeah, the plot.  She is his hostage, but seems to sell him out.  He escapes and seeks help.
In the film's most famous scene, Pipe and David fight over the latter not wanting to put on the sunglasses.  This fight scene runs continuously for about 10 minutes and features almost no cuts/editing (if any).

If this seems familiar, South Park did the scene shot-for-shot with Timmy and Jimmy.  Someone on YouTube mixed the two together for convenience's sake.  Plus it's weird.
Finally convinced, David joins Piper as they find the group.  They are the resistance against this new threat, so they make a plan and bring alot of guns.

Yes, this is similar to The Matrix.  Yes, it did come out over a decade earlier.  Yes, I'm done belaboring this point.
The whole thing leads to a raid on a TV Station- which Foster works at- that broadcasts the signal that tricks us all.

For some reason, they trust Meg Foster.  She's Evil Lynn- why would you do that?!?
I won't SPOIL the whole thing here, but the truth manages to get out.  Seeing these guys in Color for the first time- freaky.  The End.
They still hold up.  Yes, the film was about Reagan-Era Consumerism and how shallow we could be.  What helps the movie out is that it never specifically identifies itself as such.  There's no Reagan analog.  There's no bad 1980's music (since Carpenter worked on the Soundtrack).  Hell, there's not really even much bad fashion to date the thing.  There are a lot of bad 1980s films that feature woman wearing those giant shoulder pads.  There are also a lot of good 1980s films that feature people wearing way too much neon and suit jackets with the sleeves rolled up.  Where They Live shines is making itself feel timeless.  So much of the Effects were done cheaply, but hold up to pretty modern scrutiny.  My Stinger is probably the most blatantly-fake and even that is a stretch to many, I'm sure.  Is Piper the best Actor out there?  No.  He works really well with the material though, something that I can't say about other films he's been in.  This film's biggest crime is giving you a Roddy Piper film of a quality that just couldn't be matched.  If you haven't seen They Live, do so now.  If you have, give it another look.  As someone who is willing to openly-criticize Directors I like- see Carpenter's Village of the Damned-, I maintain that this one is worth another look.  Take us away, most awkward thing to discover during sex...
Up next, another Project Terrible film.  If your film is not a Comedy or a Horror Film, what the hell is it?  Stay tuned...

Last year on 9/12, a man went to Washington to hold a rally.  That man was Glenn Beck.  Besides being loud and abrasive, the man is also a dangerous idiot.  Three times now, he's made statements along the lines of 'Group A is going to to get you & only you can protect yourselves.'  Three times, some listener of his has shot up a police station/military base/political building following those remarks.  You do the math.  In honor of the anniversary of his "million-strong" rally, I want to review the tale of a similar man- Jim Jones.  Mind you, in this bio-pic film, he's actually Jim Johnson.  It's funny because they make a note to say that 'the names of the innocent have been changed'...and so has his.  Coincidence?  They also change the name of famous Senator 'Leo Ryan' to 'Lee O'Brien.'  Oh good, because I wouldn't remember the only Senator ever killed in the line of duty...a year after it happened.  This film was made the year after the tragic events in Guyana and comes to us from 'acclaimed' director Rene Cardona Jr, the man behind Cyclone (the one with the plane crash, not the bike) and Tintorera.  For those who don't know, he was following in the footsteps of Rene Cardona Sr, his father and fellow director of genre films.  I tell you this so that your standards are properly gauged for the film to come.  Get out your delicious Flavor Aid for my review of...
The film begins with some long, lingering shots of the San Francisco era.  Cliched establishing footage or the darkest Full House episode ever- you decide!  After that, we get a man shooting himself in the head.  Who is this?  What context is there?  'I don't know' and 'none' would be the answers.  Seriously, this scene apparently takes place in March 1979, while all of the Jonestown/Johnsontown deaths took place in 1978.  Explain, movie!  Instead of doing this, they give us nearly ten minutes straight of Johnson/Jones (Stuart Whitman) giving a speech to his flock about how they have to move.  Cutting right to the chase, huh?  While Whitman does play the character well, this is way too long to hold the scene.  After that, we get another several minutes of Congressman Lee O'Brien (no relation to Conan) talking about Jim Johnson/Jones.  Way to grab them early, Rene!  After all of that, the flock moves out of the city and out of the country, where nothing bad would ever happen...ever.
In Johnsontown/Jonestown, things seem perfect.  The people are happy, James Johnson/Jim is free to engage in rampant sex (not shown, but implied) and Joseph Cotton is in town.  Unfortunately, some kids steal supplies and totally kill the town's buzz.  This leads to some graphic and brutal punishment.  As my brother said at the time 'fortunately, the print is so washed out that you can't see anything.'  This leads to some dissent in the town, while the Elders insist that what was done had to be done.  In America, we get more talk about O'Brien being concerned about Johnsontown/Jonestown.  Finally, he heads over there by plane.  Actually, to be fair, he heads to a nearby village by plane and then heads to Johnsontown/Jonestown by way of a different plane.  I appreciate the authenticity of that, I really do, but you could have simplified that.  If you aren't going to give people the same names, why keep this aspect intact?  Everything seems fine in the cult town, leading O'Brien to state that 'all of the people I've talked to have shown that they are happy to be here.'  That's Senatorial slang for 'people are slipping me notes about how they want to escape, but I won't say anything.'  O'Brien eventually comes clean to Johnson/Jones about the fact that he's there on a Congressional Inquiry.  He takes it well.
Of course, you know that things don't end well.  If you don't, you really went to a shoddy, second-rate School.  Seriously, get a refund!  Johnson/Jones has a bit of a freak-out when he finds out that some of his people are leaving, but manages to control himself.  As the group prepares to board their tiny plane, a group of men from the cult arrive alongside the airstrip and start firing.  To the film's credit, they match their footage to the real event pretty well, even nailing the frantic tone as well.  That night, Johnson/Jones gives a big speech about how they can't get amnesty anywhere else due to the killings, so death is the only answer.  This is the film's big moment, so they play it for all it's worth!  In contrast to the believed-reality of the situation, the film shows many people trying to escape and/or drinking the Flavor Aid at gunpoint.  What's the point of a Cult if they won't follow you in a Suicide Pact?  We get some trippy footage of Johnson/Jones talking to a drugged-out, dying cult member that's right out of a music video.  In the end, they're all dead.  So, again, who was the guy committing suicide in the beginning again?  Got me.  The End.
This movie shouldn't suck, but it kind of does.  This is a subject rife for a teleplay/screenplay, but this one just falters.  They somehow make a lot of this stuff just seem dull by drawing it out or playing it too subtle.  It's a crazy cult that practically worships a man- make it interesting!  Hell, because they skip out on a lot of material, they ruin it.  Jones apparently discouraged sex between unmarried cult members, but engaged in sex with both the female and male members!  I know it's a touchy subject, but you really missed out on an opportunity.  In fact, a little film called Eaten Alive made better use out of this material!  It's not a good movie, but it makes it more interesting at least.  There's also a film called Guyana Tragedy from 1980 (see Amazon link below) which stars Powers Boothe as Jones.  Is that film better?  Maybe we'll find out next 9/12...or whenever I decide to see it.  As far as this film is concerned, it's exploitation that does a bad job of making the exploitation interesting.  Much like some of the more dull Blaxploitation or Jungle Peril films, I have to ask: what's the point?
Next up, we step away from political territory and into a Giallo film.  It's also the beginning of 'Sounds Like' Week- bonus!  Stay tuned...