I’ve now completed the master John Carpenter trinity of The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, and They Live at the Plaza Theater, which further cements it as the best theater in Atlanta, ever.  I’ve long thought that They Live is a better script than it is a movie.  It’s a fantastic, simple idea that has a ton of potential as a paranoid thriller.  And yet, as fun as the movie is and as right as Rowdy Roddy Piper is for the role of a regular working-class Joe who stumbles upon the alien infiltrators, the movie just doesn’t fully work.

For one thing, it’s deadly slow.  I love a slow reveal and I love that They Live doesn’t open up to show us the true scale of the alien invaders until the end, but it takes a little too long for any kind of tension to build.  In a way, that is a product of the story’s hero--Nada is a dull guy and it takes him a while to realize what is going on.  That isn’t played for as many laughs as it could be, and consequently it’s sometimes hard to get the film’s tone.  The hapless guy thrown into an extraordinary situation has been done a lot better than it is here, but the script is right about telling the story from that perspective.

Thankfully the movie isn’t derailed by a love interest, though it very nearly seems like it will be at one point.  It also steers clear of the dumb military clichés and the tendency of action/sci-fi movies to build an ensemble that includes the timid scientist, the brazen hero, the goofy sidekick, the insider who can unlock every gate from his computer in his basement, and so on.  Carpenter was more interested in taking a scathing look at consumerism and greed in the 1980’s than he was in crafting a formulaic blockbuster, and that keeps the film on course.

When I hear that they are remaking They Live I have mixed emotions.  On the one hand, the movie could be so much better with some better design, better effects, better acting, and a little meatier plot.  A remake could build more sensibly to the conclusion instead of wandering there and then wrapping the whole thing up in three minutes.  But on the other hand, imagine Will Smith as the hero… he puts on the glasses and utters his catchphrase “ah, hell no” and then he starts punching people while Seth Rogan tries to keep up with the secret alien codes in his cell phone.  Imagine The Rock playing that role, raising his eyebrow as he speeds off in his 2010 BMW with his designer sunglasses that let him see the aliens while he blasts the Black Eyed Peas over the stereo.  Or maybe worse, imagine the movie recast with WB Network teens who take the whole alien race down while evading the cops and their bumbling parents?  See--this thing could really go downhill fast!  At least I can take comfort knowing that no matter what anyone does, they can’t erase Carpenter’s existing film--warts and all--and I’ve now seen it on the big screen under a Marquee that said CONSUME on one side and OBEY on the other.  That’s awesome.