They Live 'remake' in progress

www.avclub.com...

"Now it seems the project is distancing itself even further from Carpenter’s work: Deadline reports that Newman has brought Cloverfield and Let Me In writer-director Matt Reeves on board to write and helm an adaptation of Ray Nelson’s short story “8 O’Clock In The Morning”—the story that formed the basis of They Live, but differs from that film enough that the project is no longer technically a remake. And in Reeves’ words, his film won’t have the satirical or political elements, but will instead be “a psychological science fiction thriller that explores this guy’s nightmare” and could even include “a desperate love story,” as Reeves is more “drawn to the emotional side, the nightmare experience with the paranoia of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers or a Roman Polanski-style film.” So on the upside, it's a slightly more original film. On the downside, it probably won't have anything about chewing bubblegum and kicking ass."

I hate remakes HATE! This is another example. It just burns me with anger they are going to whore this movie out and (it seems) have almost nothing to do with the ideal/point of the original. Common, why not just make a 'new' movie with a new name.. why even associate with They Live when you are not going to respect its original message? $$$ of course.. and the people will watch it.. simple, sad..

Hehe, I'm planning on watching "They Live" for the first time as soon as the colbert report is done.

reply to post by Ghost375


enjoy it, it is awesome as I guess you have heard

they're going to ruin it with cgi. and the fact that if you try to make a good movie the opposite of what it is to be original and different you're going to end up with crap.

what made they live good was the creepy special effects.

reply to post by ReadyPower


I'm here to kick ass & chew bubble gum.... and I'm all out of bubble gum

Make no mistake about it. This is a deliberate watering down of one movie that managed to get people to think. The new one will only amuse, if that.

Another movie remake that did the same was " Rollerball". The original with James Cahn was a masterpiece. Intertaining and thought provoking. It pointed a powerful finger in the face of a corporate future and the roll that violent professional sports play in controlling the masses. The remake was just, just, just nothing. Blot out the message.

Another was the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". The first was at it's time a major movie with a large impact on public consciousness and paved the way for serious consideration of alien visitors. The remake with Keanu Reeves was just a complete waste of time. Once again dilute the original and erase any message which might cause viewers to think.

reply to post by ReadyPower


Dear ReadyPower,

This stinks. The original was a great film with a lot of meaning. Rowdy Roddy Piper really filled the role well. This is why I haven't watched television for three years (I only watch Dexter, it always surprises me). Remake after remake after remake. I waited 10 years for them to remake "The Omega Man', they did and it was called "I Am Legend" and it was terrible.

reply to post by ReadyPower


Practicing embed. Check last link if these don't play.
I though this would be a trailer but I think its the whole movie.
id=VideoPlayback video.google.com... style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash>

Google Video Link

video.google.com...#

The story revolves around a nameless man referred to as "Nada" (Roddy Piper), a quiet drifter who finds work on a Los Angeles construction site. One of the workers, Frank Armitage (Keith David), takes him to a local shantytown. After eating at the soup kitchen and spending the night, he notices odd behavior at the small church across the street. Investigating, he discovers that the church's soup kitchen is a front: inside, the loud "choir practice" is a recording, scientific apparatus fills a back room, and cardboard boxes are stacked everywhere, including some in a secret compartment that he stumbles across. That night, the police surround the church, forcing the inhabitants to flee. The police then turn on the shantytown, destroying it with bulldozers and beating the blind minister of the church to death. Nada returns to the site the next day and investigates the church again, which has been emptied. He takes one of the boxes from the secret compartment and opens it in an alleyway, finding it full of sunglasses. He keeps one pair and stashes the rest in an unused garbage can. When Nada later dons the glasses for the first time, the world appears in shades of grey, with significant differences. He notices that a billboard now simply displays the word "Obey";

en.wikipedia.org...

Thought I saw this movie but was thinking of that movie with the giant Ants.
I think that was "THEM." This is They Live



...which looks pretty good! This is the old version movie poster and the video above is the older version which I will watch later on. Thanks for turning me onto it. Passion makes the world go round. And though I greatly admire your artistic integrity, guess Im a little harder to piss off and pretty sure I'll enjoy the remake as well. Stars or no.

Originally posted by TerryMcGuire
Make no mistake about it. This is a deliberate watering down of one movie that managed to get people to think. The new one will only amuse, if that.

Another movie remake that did the same was " Rollerball". The original with James Cahn was a masterpiece. Intertaining and thought provoking. It pointed a powerful finger in the face of a corporate future and the roll that violent professional sports play in controlling the masses. The remake was just, just, just nothing. Blot out the message.

Another was the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". The first was at it's time a major movie with a large impact on public consciousness and paved the way for serious consideration of alien visitors. The remake with Keanu Reeves was just a complete waste of time. Once again dilute the original and erase any message which might cause viewers to think.

Definitely see your point. The original version of La Femme Nakita was French and dubbed in english. Brigette Fonda version of the main character was so watered down as to be unrecognizable. even this newe TV show is a joke. Point being I couldn't stand the Brigette Fonda remake since it had none of the flavor of the original, not even a little taste.

On no. Not another remake of an actually good movie with crappy CGI effects.

If they wanna make a new movie based on the story that "They Live" is, that's fine, but DO NOT call it, "They Live". It will be ruined. The original "They Live" is an awesome classic, mainly because it's a thing of it's time, and cannot be done justice in today's time. It will more than likely be a CGI craptacular crap.

There is no need to "remake" any well done original movie that was made in the 70's to present.
In some instances I can see the interest in remaking an older movie, 60's and before.
But "They Live" is a modern setting film, and it a great film, and any attempt to "remake" it today, will suck.

Just finished sitting through as much of the original as I could stomach.

Plot is flawed to my view since this hero character, some guy with a gay sounding name starts wiping out people just because he sees into their inner character and they are not human. His biggest worry is this "alien" among us is subliminally suggesting we hate and kill each other and so he is killing them.
Problem is no one is doing anything cruel or wicked to anyone (except fooling people into being passive) until this maniac goes on his shooting rampage and starts murdering "people" who look differently.
"Now we start spilling some blood" the good guy says, and you know he can't wait to get started.

This is a C movie if ever there was one. It will be very hard to make this movie worse.
The most significant aspects are the fights, and beatings which are parsed generously throughout. If you like a great fisticuffs and want to see a blind, black Priest getting beaten to death and for some viewers sure this will be considered a 3fer, this is your movie. Many scenes of cops getting blown away - also an especial treat for some.
One point he kidnaps a woman and I thought it was going the way of Three Days of the Condor but realized this is such a super-simple plot - a woman would take away from the beatings and kill shots.
There is haunting harmonica playing throughout which constitutes a score and virtually no dialogue outside of a few now famous lines I recognize like "I am coming to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I am all out of bubblegum. The acting is atrocious, for example the delivery of that famous line itself is in a critical part of the movie and you almost want to laugh it is so deadpanned and makes so very little sense unless you ARE a programmed killing machine. Its acted like a really long Saturday Night live skit, but without the humor.

If the message is that some faction of the government and TPTB are practicing mind control and manipulation - we all know that. It is called advertising. Conform Consume Buy Obey (I think this means simply don't go around murdering folks and this one man resents the heck out of being told not to)

We don't need aliens to do this for us. Say hello to free market Capitalism and IF you dare suggest it isn't working for us, you are nothing but a a communist. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Originally posted by TerryMcGuire
Another was the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". The first was at it's time a major movie with a large impact on public consciousness and paved the way for serious consideration of alien visitors. The remake with Keanu Reeves was just a complete waste of time. Once again dilute the original and erase any message which might cause viewers to think.

Exactly, take away the message about the dangers of nuclear warfare and replace it with the bogus climate change agenda. Admittedly I do enjoy the remake too but that and Jaden Smith just make it unwatchable for me.

reply to post by newcovenant


Right, right, right, and right. However, one must take into account this movie was made in 88. The "message" that is so known today was not nearly so back then.

Rowdy Roddy Piper was a big name wrestler and this was his only staring roll that I know of. Otherwise as you say, right right right and right.

You want a hoot? Find "Abbot and Costello Go to Mars." They live will look like Avatar by comparison.

reply to post by newcovenant


Here's a series of videos that explain the significance of the film:

They Live We Sleep Deeply, part I

They Live We Sleep Deeply, part II

They Live We Sleep Deeply, part III

I won't embed them here because they use brief flashes of nudity to illustrate how commercialism blinds and distracts us but, they do an excellent job of analyzing the movie and the meaning behind it.

"mama don't like no tattle tales"

Just wanted to throw that out there.

They Live is an awesome movie. I remember seeing it when I was a wee kid. Too many horrid remakes.

As long as they leave the signature line in about kicking butt and chewing bubble gum.

This is at least one movie that is ripe for a remake.... While I loved the original, it could be done SO much better these days...