Breathing Room: They Live On

/101 Comments/in /by

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

It’s blustery and bitterly cold here today after the two-day snow we had in Michigan – perfect weather for queueing up an old film.

Perfect political weather, too, for a movie I have long adored and have wanted to re-watch.

I can’t recall what kept me away at the time but I missed the anniversary celebration this past autumn of an important John Carpenter film.

Halloween, you’re probably thinking. Nope, never seen it, not about to break down now and watch it. Not my kind of horror film.

What I missed seeing re-screened in the theater was They Live which first released 35 years ago November 1988.

There’s a lot of critical analysis published online about this multi-genre science fiction action horror film which has become a cult classic over time. One of the best pieces of criticism isn’t online but in text by Jonathan Lethem, They Live: A Novel Approach to Cinema (Deep Focus).

“But it’s a cheesy B-movie with a wrestler as lead, what the heck gives?” you may be thinking.

Yes, I admit, it’s not The Unbearable Lightness of Being, or The Accused, or even Die Hard, all of which also released the same year. But They Live had something important to say which transcended its time.

Contrast and compare to Die Hard, about which more people spend time arguing if it’s a Christmas movie or not, versus They Live’s anti-capitalist message.

This one image encapsulates the challenge main character Nada (played by Roddy Piper) is up against as he tries to wake his fellow humans:

Screenshot from They Live (1988), by director John Carpenter via Universal Pictures

If fascism is defined as government of, by, and for business, these messages – WORK, WATCH TELEVISION, SURRENDER, BUY, THIS IS YOUR GOD, REPRODUCE, CONFORM, YIELD, STAY ASLEEP, CONSUME, and above all, OBEY — aren’t just capitalist.

They’re fascist.

They Live is a profoundly anti-fascist film which relied on common men – a nobody drifter named Nothing in Spanish, a Black blue-collar co-worker, and a neighborhood preacher – take on forces which have subsumed humanity into a form of unwaking slavery in which dominant authority figures are not human.

Was Carpenter prescient?

There have been plenty of negative critiques about They Live, claiming Carpenter didn’t go far and deep enough with his topic, that his approach was too shallow and populist, inconsistent.

Not to mention the 5-1/2 minute long fight scene between Nada (Piper) and his co-worker Frank Armitage (Keith David). Too long, too violent, too crude, not relevant, you name it — there was some criticism about it.

And yet that fight scene still garners intense conversation decades later having stood out as punctuation in the film. Two of the proletariat fight each other, one intent on trying to save the other from the sleep walking state of submission. Is this what it will take to persuade those who’ve been brainwashed from their anti-woke Qanon’d MAGAted possession, a virtual emotional and psychic slugfest to get them to wake up and smell the fascist coffee?

Or does Carpenter tell us we’ll need to get our hands dirty, talk with the possessed where they live in Red America?

You can stream They Live now on STARZ, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, and more. I should have bought a copy of this film a long time ago for my library.

What about you? What are you going to watch this snowy Sunday, or tomorrow on the federal holiday observing MLK Jr. Day?

Share in comments. Treat this as an open thread.

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101 replies
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  3. Matt Foley says:

    Mississippi Burning from 1988. Free on youtube. Not much different from a MAGA rally today. Excellent acting.

  4. chocolateislove says:

    We got hit with lake effect snow today. The heaviest was last night/early this morning. The high winds today made the lesser bands of lake effect seem more than they probably really were. Mr. Chocolate and I keep commenting on how much snow is on the deck furniture. The wind chill has kept our husky-mix dog indoors. He has not stayed out long. And the snow is now up to his belly.

    My youngest is at college in northern Minnesota. The high there was -14 with windchills at -31. I texted the suggestion that instead of eating breakfast in their room, to drive somewhere to warm up the car. After, kid texted to say “that after a little bit of buffering the car started”. I love how that kid’s brain works.

    As for what I’m watching — I’m making my way through Fellow Travelers on Showtime/Paramount+. It definitely earns its TV-MA rating.

      • chocolateislove says:

        I don’t know how closely the series follows the book it’s based on, but in the series there is a character that must be based on Sen. Hunt, not to spoil too much.

        The actual history scenes have been interesting to watch. I was a young adult during what became the end of the cold war and the AIDS epidemic. So, while my history classes in high school spent some time on McCarthy and his second Red Scare, they didn’t mention the Lavender Scare. I didn’t learn/realize what McCarthy meant by subversives and deviants until my college history classes.

        I’m adding Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins to my book list. Thanks for the recommendation.

  5. mattchew says:

    They Live is a fav! Yesterday I watched Minding the Gap for the first time (great intersectional doc), and rewatched The Color of Pomegranates. Tonights viewing will be All the Streets Are Silent (doc about convergence of skateboarding and hip hop in NYC 87-97) and probably something to make me laugh afterwards.

    • LeftsidePortland says:

      Thinks for the skateboarding doc tip! Hadn’t heard of it. I lived and skated in NYC 1985-6, so I definitely need this. Love THEY LIVE! One of my faves too. Blown away by the anti fascist themes when I first saw it in a Eugene, Oregon art theater, late night in the 90’s. Also have been enjoying the latest FARGO. I LOL’d when YMCA played as the Ammon Bundy-types deployed for the final showdown. Had plans to continue with the Handmade Films series on Criterion (we started with THE ADVENTURES OF BARON VON MUNCHAUSEN) but we’re still sitting in candlelight waiting for the power to come back on after the latest wind, snow and ice wallop. Reading through the Lee Archer series on my Kindle instead.

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        No spoilers please! I’m two episodes behind you on the new Fargo and loving it, especially the heavy Robert Altman overtones and Juno Temple and the other actors making it hum.

        • LeftsidePortland says:

          Apologies! My bad, forgot that others might not have seen that episode yet. I will add that the satire of the Bundy-types warms my Idaho-grown heart.

        • Rayne says:

          Oh fooey…that’s a feature Discord offers we likely won’t have here, a spoiler mask to hide content unless one wants to read spoilers.

          I need to think about that as a comment guideline for the future though — tag all spoilers. LOL

  6. Matt___B says:

    Recommending another little-known John Carpenter film with a similar theme: “In the Mouth of Madness”, which is about a popular horror-fiction author whose books entrap a very large segment of the general population into a dark fantasy world and drives just about everybody else mad. Protagonist is insurance adjuster Sam Neill who comes perilously close to succumbing to the cult leader/author’s outsized influence…

  7. -mamake- says:

    What we’ve watched recently
    – Fargo Season 5 (maga-esque, domestic violence tied to sovereign sheriff types)
    – Slow Horses Season 3 (finishing it tonight)
    – The Crown / final season – moving to me due to unusual personal events at the time Di died.
    Actress who played Diana captured her perfectly IMHO.
    – Palate cleanser while prepping dinner – revisiting Mary Tyler Moore shows for a laugh and reflection
    on who I was then.

    • BobBobCon says:

      This season of Fargo has been magnificent. The cast has been amazing, with Juno Temple showing stuff you could never imagine if you only watched her lighter stuff. Dave Foley of all people is great. Joe Keery from Stranger Things shows skill you didn’t expect. And then you get to the rest of the cast and you realize there are no bad performances.

      The domestic violence aspect is unsettling, but the reality is that it often is just that bad and it’s disturbingly common. It’s tied together with the rest of the plot in a really skillful way, and the whole season has been great.

    • Hcgorman says:

      We did a family vacation there last year and a year ago almost to the day we had coffee is a little cafe in that town. Sorry to see it going up in flames.
      Just finished number 5 of The Thin Man.
      18” of snow in Interlochen michigan.

      • posaune says:

        You’re in Interlochen? Many many fond memories of Interlochen and the wonderful teachers at the academy.

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        Finally. Our family house is due west of Interlochen on Lake Michigan. The relative lack of snow there lately has been, well, chilling.

  9. wetzel-rhymes-with says:

    My Twitter has gotten beyond the pale. There’s no engaging with it.

    So much of this country has gone rancid.

    • jecojeco says:

      I’ve been banned for life on twitter, maybe it’s a blessing! Apparently I’m worse than trump. Maybe if I announce my candidacy for president I can get back on?

      I thought Extraction 1 (NOT the Bruce Willis movie) was excellent, lots of action, gratuitous violence – but tastefully done.

      I think God is punishing the GOP voters in Iowa for filling their hearts with hate. Only mentally impaired would go out in -20 weather to vote for their fav hater. Theres going to be a bunch of fingers & toes sacrificed tonight for this honor.

      • Grain of Sand says:

        I have been attending democratic caucuses in Iowa since 1976, but am now looking on from out of state. It is cold where I have landed but nothing compared to Iowa. As for Iowa republicans, the goddess has good reason to be pissed!

  10. Artzen Frankengueuze says:

    Bought local cheese and fresh microgreens at the local farmers market this morning .

    Replaced the belt pulley on the dryer that had been screeching louder than a victim in a horror movie.

    Back to reading ” The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson.

    A serial killer and the Chicago world’s fair of 1892. Pretty good so far.

    Stopped by here for a while to read high level analysis and commentary. Never disappointing.

    Oh, and started my day with “the Hansen”, poached eggs over Kim-chi. Mmmm-bop!

    Wait, what was the question?

    • Kevin Bullough says:

      An excellent book, I am so glad someone loaned it to me a while ago.
      My pick for guilty pleasure movie is Blood Simple.
      Tis far too cold with snow still on the ground to even contemplate going outside.

  11. Badger Robert says:

    OT: I notice a difference between Peacock which the purchased, and cable TV which we have cancelled.
    When paying for streaming services the consumer only pays for what he/she wants.
    The network executives may want to emphasize that.

  13. painedumonde says:

    A great movie, a great fight, and some of the best lines ever, all nestled in the droning soundtrack punctuated with the fickle finger of fate.

    Another sleeper, Night of the Comet. Apocalypse with government agents using what’s left of the populace as blood stock. And another great line, “See this is the problem with these things, Daddy would’ve gotten us Uzi’s.”

  14. Old Rapier says:

    I always recommend Searching For Sugar Man. Not because it’s a great movie but because it’s a great story.

    • goatrodeo says:

      And Rodriguez *just* passed, RIP! Great story, you’re right. Got to see him perform a dozen years ago when his story resurfaced. A treat!
      Meanwhile, it’s gonna be 68 degrees today, though the nights are down close to freezing.
      Our guilty pleasure lately is Madam Secretary. Thin gruel with happy endings and solutions in 40 minutes! But S5 begins with interesting digressions into nuclear armament, testosterone-fueled standing orders, and white nationalism, and even cameos with Albright, Powell and HRC?!? Looked it up and this season parallels 2018/2019 and it’s feeling too real for comfort? Darned, did we live through that? Are we still living through this? Reality is indeed stranger than fiction. Chjeers

  15. earthworm says:

    i read a lengthy review of a book, “Pandora’s Box: the Greed, Lust and Lies That Broke Television,” (by Peter Biskind) which reminded me why i do not watch….

  16. dimmsdale says:

    The only streaming service I’m on is MHZ, which is mostly European TV (mostly subtitles), and tonight I’ll be watching “Horses of Wildenstein,” a German series about sturm-und-drang, mountainous passions and greed yak yak yak at a thoroughbred horse ranch–well acted, gorgeous settings, somewhat predictable Hallmarky plotting, but HORSES!! They’re gorgeous animals, and the equine factor is just enough to keep me interested–for now, at least.

    • rosalind says:

      MHz is my favorite channel! currently in need of lighter fare, i have been binging the Austrian “Walking on Sunshine” (about the machinations at a weather channel) and the French “Deadly Tropics” (2 female police detectives solve the latest murder, set in Martinique). will check out the horsies.

      • KlausEdcase says:

        As far as MHZ goes:
        Tatort Weimar, think Fargo in Germany, a police procedural with off kilter comedy.

        We’ve also watched a number of French mysteries.

        Blood on the Vine.
        Murder In
        Perfect Murders

        The various Agatha Christie riffs, Little Murders and Criminal Games are also lots of fun.

        [Moderator’s note: You’ve published six previous comments as “KlausEdcase”; I have edited your username from “ClauseEdcase” this once. Please use the same username and email address each time you comment. Thanks. /~Rayne]

  17. Taxesmycredulity says:

    Also loved Carpenter’s Starman from 1983. Jeff Bridges’s portrayal of an alien, the chemistry he and Karen Black share, and the powerful soundtrack combine to make a wonderful movie.

    • Rayne says:

      Starman is another one I need to re-watch — only this time seeing Bridges’ character as autistic and how “normal” people treat autistic persons as if they’re alien.

      Revelatory to re-watch films with a different POV, catching subtext, ex. seeing Neo coded as a trans person in The Matrix. When I first saw The Matrix I had no idea that one of the Wachowskis was about to transition (or had been); years later when I realized the movie was a metaphor about trans persons’ journey, both the Wachowskis had transitioned. It was like a thunderclap experiencing that shift in awareness.

  18. Ithaqua0 says:

    Adding to the John Carpenter list: Dark Star, his very first film, which started while he was in film school at USC in the early ’70s. I laughed so hard at the (no spoilers here!) scene I injured myself.

    Also: The Brother from Another Planet, from John Sayles. I saw it as a double feature with Repo Man, another fine but lesser-known movie, in Petaluma oh so many years ago…

    • -mamake- says:

      Yes! Two of my indie favorites…! Also “Something Wild” which was in a theatre with an audience of great laughers…have not seen it since but it’s recently appeared on the streaming machine. Will find out if it holds up.

    • Eschscholzia says:

      I second Dark Star! It completely ruined 2001 for me. :)

      I hadn’t seen 2001 when it came out: my family didn’t go to movies, and it never played at the $2.50 a carload drive in where I saw Blazing Saddles with friends. In 1975 I just got my driver’s license, and went to the Fine Arts theatre in Pacific Beach, which had 2001 and Dark Star as alternating features that afternoon & evening (and as I found out years later when it closed, porn all night to pay the bills). Maybe if I had seen 2001 first I would have enjoyed them both, but after Dark Star, 2001 came across as pretentious and sterile.

      I’m having trouble narrowing down _which_ scene Ithaqua0 injured themself watching. Several possibilities come to mind. Also of note: the opening credits to Dark Star include the best song ever written about Benson, Arizona.

  19. OldTulsaDude says:

    When movie rentals were a thing I’d search for movies that weren’t hits-one discovery was They Live. Another was Paris, Texas.

  20. John Paul Jones says:

    Caught “They Live” on TV in, I think, about 1989 (Cinemax?) and was blown away. For years I never knew the title because I dropped in on it about twenty minutes in, and was rushed away very quickly after it ended; family stuff. But I was blown away by the concept – less so by the He-Man appearance of the lead.

    My fave movies tend to be ones which have a propulsive feel, and ongoing plot momentum which stops for nothing, not for “movie moments,” not for “romance,” and which does nothing but keep moving towards an inevitable conclusion. So I still rewatch, at least once a year, “The Peacemaker,” which is fairly silly in some dimensions, but which has that momentum, and a fabulous opening sequence. “The Town” is another one with a similar propulsive motion, as also “The Accountant,” even though it too is reasonably silly if you stop to think too much about it.

    So yeah, this leaves me vulnerable to overvaluing thrillers, and dumb war movies like “Tobruk,” but I don’t care. Momentum is its own reward, for me at any rate.

    Some early snow here on the wet coast, and some slightly unseasonable record low temps.

    Oh yeah, caught a bit of the Packers game. Pretty exciting stuff in the third quarter.

  21. boatgeek says:

    It got down to 16 degrees in Seattle this week, which is colder than I’ve seen it in 30 years of living here. My youngest lives in Bellingham, where Puget Sound meets Canada. They got down to 5 degrees, -13 wind chill. There’s apparently ice on the salt water bay there. That’s awfully cold.

    • e.a. foster says:

      Yes, Bellingham can get the same weather as we do here in B.C. Its so much worse for those of us who have always lived in B.C., and Washington State. We’re just not used to it. We don’t do cold, unless we’re skiing. Records were broken all over the province with the cold.
      Its unfortunate those living on the Praires and Michagan are having such cold weat her, but they’re used to it. We on the west coast just aren’t. Haven’t left the house since it snowed Friday. Now the weather information advises its going to snow Tuesday. Yikes.

      My favorite movie is still the first Star Wars. Took a friend’s 7 year old twin boys to see it. Should have seen their faces.
      Never really liked “horror” movies. Liked the movie fargo, it was funny. Haven’t seen the t.v. series.

      • John Paul Jones says:

        I saw the first “Star Wars” at (I think) the Vogue theatre in Vancouver and I remember being absolutely jaw-dropped by the opening shot of the Star Destroyer gliding past the camera and just — never stopping, just seeming to get bigger and bigger and bigger. I settled back in my seat with a smile on my face: this was gonna be great!

      • boatgeek says:

        Yep, the good old Fraser River Outflow*. I live where I do so that I can visit snow and cold but not have to deal with it on the regular. We’ve been out to walk the dog and ward off cabin fever, but not much beyond that.

        As family legend tells, the first movie I saw in theater was The Empire Strikes Back (~age 4.5). Apparently, I completely wigged out when Yoda came on screen and fled from the theater. My dad tried to get me back in there by telling me he was the same puppeteer as Miss Piggy (I was a Muppets fan then and now), but that Did Not Help.

        On average, I’m more of a Star Trek man than Star Wars, and I don’t generally do horror. Fargo (the movie) was great though. My aunt comes from that part of Minnesota, and it is always a bit disconcerting to listen to her and her sisters talking. I never know when the wood chipper is going to come out.

        * For those not deep into Salish Sea weather patterns, the Fraser River in SW BC passes through the coastal Cascade Range and then turns north. When the wind is right, air from the Arctic can flow down the NE BC plains and then down the river valley.

    • Purple Martin says:

      South Puget Sound, highs have been below freezing the last couple days (unusual here), 13 degrees last night, up to 15 right now (coming up on 9am). Should be a little warmer today—33, sunny, little wind, so I should be able to get out for a round of disc golf this afternoon.

      I more of a reader than a movie watcher. Last movie that made an impression on me was The King’s Speech. Rewatched it recently and was as good as I remember.

  22. rosalind says:

    just did a re-watch of “The Ice Storm”. just as great as the first time. the cast. the costumes. the script. how they re-created the ice storm during the spring shoot is fascinating (watched it on the Criterion DVD w/special features).

    my PacNW town has been experiencing record low temps, driven down by a wicked northerly w/gusts up to 50mph. no snow, just wicked cold. the frozen water on the rocks by the shore are striking.

  23. P’villain says:

    Our area is among the few in the US with quiet weather. A meek storm yesterday left several inches of wet snow in the backcountry, which four humans and two dogs skied today. Sierra cement, but windless, partly sunny weather, good company, and gliding through the hushed forest made for a fine day indeed.

  25. David F. Snyder says:

    Carpenter hated Reaganomics (and we still should). “I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubble gum.” Apparently Roddy wrote that line into the movie. Also, gotta love that soundtrack by Carpenter and Allan Howarth (using a Mac II and synths, all electronic).

    Watching here: “Time Bandits”, “Brazil”, and “The Adventures of Baton von Munchausen” — Terry Gilliam’s trilogy on the destructive and creative powers of imagination.

    Also, “Tokyo Story” (subtitled) because it’s one of the best.

    • -mamake- says:

      I love all of the Ozu films (he directed Tokyo Story) that I’ve seen. Quiet, simple and so humane. I spent my earliest years in Japan and his take on the people and places then resonates deeply.

  26. NickBarnes says:

    On the back of a colleague’s recent recommendation of “Baptiste”, I am watching season 1 of “The Missing”, which is excellently done. Also enjoying season 2 of “Lupin”.

  27. Tech Support says:

    Loved They Live when it came out. I did actually see it in the theater originally. It helped that I was a WWF (before the World Wildlife Foundation sued them) fan at the time. Even then though I thought the extended back-alley “wrestling match” was a bit gratuitous.

    Nonetheless, I think the film is deliciously subversive. Not just for all the themes already mentioned, but because those themes were packaged into a movie engineered to appeal to the same teenage boys who were being fed rah rah jingoistic 80s movies like Red Dawn etc. etc.

    This weekend we ended up watching Bullet Train. Though it lacks any subversive qualities whatsoever, and the only female character with significant speaking lines is quite nearly a cardboard cutout, it rates fairly high on the “dumb fun” scale.

  28. Tetman Callis says:

    I missed “They Live” when it first came out. Many years later my son, who was born the same year “They Live” was released, clued me in on it and I watched it. He has been engaged in a comprehensive, years-long movie-watching project, and every couple weeks he and I discuss movies. One of his most recent viewings has been of Mamoru Oshii’s “Angel’s Egg,” a 1985 Japanese anime. “Angel’s Egg” is a relatively short (71 minutes) work, thoughtful and quiet, about Angel and her egg and the wrecked, haunted, and confusing world they find themselves in. I watched it last night, on YouTube.

    • Rayne says:

      Thanks for sharing that, I’ll add Angel’s Egg to my TBW list. I’m a late discoverer of anime and have been devouring a lot lately.

      Speaking of which, can’t recommend enough animated series Blue Eye Samurai (2023, TV-MA) on Netflix. Relatable to a mixed-race AAPI like me, historical Edo period setting, voice acting with solid mixed-race representation and phenomenal actors Kenneth Branagh and George Takei. Go into it blind, don’t read about it first or you’ll miss the FULL impact of the first episode.

    • Rayne says:

      YES. How did I forget to include his wrasslin’ nickname? Also forgot to mention he was with WWE; if he appeared in a similar film today, you can bet Donald Trump would be annoyed and blasting Piper on social media for being so disloyal.

      • ExRacerX says:

        Eh, zero fucks would be given—Roddy Piper has always marched to the tune of his own bagpipes! Plus, he was Canadian-American, which I’m sure would have drawn even more Trump fire.

        R.I.P., Rowdy Roddy Piper—61 was way too young.

  30. pH unbalanced says:

    I had somehow missed They Live when it first came out and finally watched it a year or two ago — everything I had heard about it in passing made it sound terrible, but yeah, that was a fantastic movie.

    Most recent movies I’ve seen are Godzilla Minus One and The Boy and the Heron, both of which I would highly recommend. (Only this moment realizing they are both about Japan at the tail-end of WW2. Hmmm.)

    On streaming we’ve just finished watching Slow Horses Season 3. I’m gearing up to watch the most recent season of For All Mankind, a show which can be hit or miss, but when it is good it is *great*. Also looking forward to the new season of True Detective — the only reason I haven’t cancelled Max yet is to watch Jodie Foster hold court.

    • Rayne says:

      I missed your comment about having seen Godzilla Minus One. This was the last film I saw in the theater last month and it was so fucking good. It was another one my son had raved about in all-caps text message, said it was the perfect reprise of the earliest Godzilla films and it absolutely was.

  31. GV-San-Ya says:

    Just finished the devastating third chapter of Geddy Lee’s autobiography, “My Effin’ Life”. It describes how his parents met and fell in love in a Nazi concentration camp. Such a remarkable, unimaginable story, and a timely reminder of how fascism has a way of sneaking up on you.

  32. chrisanthemama says:

    tcm.com all day long and into the wee hours of Tuesday: A Warm December; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner; In the Heat of the Night; A Patch of Blue; Lilies of the Field; The Defiant Ones; No Way Out; King: A Filmed Record; Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment; Freedom on My Mind; Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist; and Song of Freedom. https://www.tcm.com/schedule/

  33. Brian Ruff says:

    I vaguely remember They Live, thanks for the tip.
    An 80’s cult classic that I’m looking to re-watch, as it really spoke to me at that time, is Repo Man. I was also a disaffected punk rocker, like Otto (Emilio Estevez), and I had bosses/mentors similar to Bud, the Harry Dean Stanton character who, having gone through WW2, or Korea, or ‘Nam, certainly gave no fucks. I owned the soundtrack on cassette, too, and it has some great tunes, including the ripping title track from Iggy Pop
    I’m not sure if it’s ok to post a link, so I won’t, but check it out on you tube: Iggy Pop Repo Man

    “A repo man is always intense”.

  34. Alan Charbonneau says:

    In Austin this morning, it was 17* F with a feels like of 4*. We still have power while there are scattered outages in the DFW area. Imagine seeing the Cowboys last night and then have no electricity during an arctic blast. Brutal.

  35. still noromo says:

    Rayne, I saw Halloween shortly after it opened in ’78 at a theatre nestled between porn theatres on 42nd St. in Times Square, with full audience participation. At one point a woman behind me, after berating Jamie Lee Curtis for something her character did, jumped up and ran out of the theatre screaming. It was great! — a great movie and a great experience.

    • Rayne says:

      LOL too funny. It’s not that I don’t like Curtis — she’s fabulous, from her role in Trading Places to Everything Everywhere All At Once she’s proven her range and genius especially in comedy — I’m just not a fan of slasher horror genre. Didn’t appeal to me in 1978 and still doesn’t now.

      • -mamake- says:

        Jamie Lee Curtis was great in The Bear. Which I recommend. A late in Season 2 appearance which was astounding.

        • Rayne says:

          My son has raved about The Bear. Now I’ll have to ask him if he’s really a Jamie Lee Curtis fanboi. After EEAAO had come out in the theater, he’d seen it before I did and sent me an all-caps text message as soon as he left the theater about how good it was, and I’d be completely surprised by Jamie Lee Curtis.

        • -mamake- says:

          I just love her ‘later in life’ go for broke approach. And she looks like she is enjoying the hell out of these roles. Amazing.

  36. theartistvvv says:

    My two guilty streaming pleasures of late have been Reacher, and The Last Kingdom (finished Bass Reeves a cuppla weeks ago – well-acted worthy western which has as a main theme issues of race – but better yet look for, The Harder They Come).

    Reacher is far superior to the Tom Cruise attempts, and if the lead actor is a bit expressionless and stiff, he still makes a believable Reacher as in the books. The show moves fast, too.

    The Last Kingdom is unexpectedly good, a little bit of something for everyone amongst the pretty (and some very ugly) actors, excessive (no guns) violence, religion (essential to the story), and plot twists, as well as a seeming attempt at being historically accurate. It feels a bit like a soap opera and the lead has a odd accent and the look of a hairstyle model (with washboard and pecs) but he does a good job conveying the protag-of-many-issues, and many, many issues there are and in each episode (just started season 4 of 5). One funny point of accuracy – notice the characters’ fingernails.

    • Rayne says:

      Thanks. It’s on my TBW list but I’m never going to go full otaku with anime, only tasting once in a while — like one or two episodes at a time of The Way of the Househusband which makes me giggle. (I should add here for others that Neon Genesis Evangelion is a rather large franchise in comparison to the other anime I’ve been watching recently. I like the smaller doses, including single episodes of anime in Netflix’s Love, Death, and Robots.)

  38. myra_bo_byra says:

    Good Night And Good Luck: Murrow in the McCarthy era. George Clooney, David Strathairn, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Daniels and the best part? An absolutely AAA+ Gorgeous Soundtrack featuring Dianne Reeves. What’s not to like.

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