They Live (1987)

Aliens are intent on taking over earth (aren't they always?), and it's up to a lone drifter played by Roddy "Hot Rod" Piper to save the day. Director John Carpenter did a great job with the concept here, which plays up the classic paranoid conspiracy of subliminal messages being planted in the various forms of media for "mind controlling" purposes. Out of work and basically drifting from place to place, Piper lands a construction job and soon befriends the big black dude from Carpenter's "The Thing". The two team up with a local rebel group who are hip to the alien presence here on earth, and we soon realize that not only was Piper a cool wrestler who liked to smash peoples heads with coconuts (Jimmy Snuka, anyone?), he also makes a kick ass action hero. Seems that via a huge satellite the aliens are somehow able to appear as humans, but the minute you slip a pair of special sunglasses on you can easily tell who is human and who is not. Also with the glasses on, you notice that what appears to be normal ads on billboards, magazines, and television, are in fact really telling you to consume, reproduce or be submissive. Subliminal messages...get it? This feature of the film worked very well, as the view with the glasses on is shown in black and white and is actually somewhat startling looking, as are the aliens themselves. They be ugly mother fuckers man. This flick took awhile to get going, and at first I really questioned Pipers ability as a leading man, but that all changed once they alien ass kicking began. We get some nifty shoot outs, some classic one liners from Piper, and one super long fight scene that was really out of place, yet somehow worked. Good fun and a must for all you conspiracy theorists out there.