Class316

Since the bare bones R1 of this is expensive and OOP, and with no SE R1 in the foreseeable future, I thought I'd make a review of “They Live” Region 2 UK DVD



Let’s start with the menu! It actually has one of the coolest menus I’ve ever seen on any DVD!! They appear in “subliminal” form and when you highlight the proper words appear! For instance “Watch TV” transforms to “Play Movie” and “Consume” changes to “Special Features”, and so on.

http://iceworld2.netfirms.com/They_Live_Menu.jpg

As you can see, on the background of the main menu you have the guy on TV who interferes with “their” TV signal and shoots out words that the brainwashed lemmings [in the movie] would mock at and perceive as “nonsense”.

The chapter select menu is also pretty cool http://iceworld2.netfirms.com/They_Live_selection.jpg

Now on to the special features. That’s right!! Unlike its expensive region 1 counterpart, this version has quite a few extras!! First of you’ve got an audio commentary with John Carpenter and Roddy Piper. Then you’ve got a making of. On the menu that has the making of if you highlight the Alien’s eyes you get an Easter egg in the form of three interviews. One with John Carpenter, one with Roddy Piper, and one with Meg Foster. Then on that section of the menu when you highlight Piper’s glasses you get another Easter egg! A recent picture of both Piper and Carpenter when they recorded the commentary for the movie (damn it sure is mind boggling when you compare how piper looks in the movie and how he looks more than a decade later). The thing that’s really weird here is that you have absolutely no trailer! It wouldn’t have been difficult to include it. I wonder why they missed out on that one! I think the German R2 one has a trailer, but the cover art is messed up with German text and it doesn’t have the Easter eggs on the UK version, which IMO outweigh the trailer. I’ve tried looking for the trailer on the net but to no avail

Other languages on this DVD include German and Spanish, and being a region 2 disc subtitles include English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Finnish.

Now on to the actual movie. That was actually the first time I’ve seen They Live in a while. And this time round it really did have a major impact on me!! Much more so than before, since the other times I saw it, the general feel behind it seemed 100% fictional. Not only that, but those who fought the Aliens are dubbed (by the Aliens) as “terrorists” and presented to ignorant humans as “evils that want to overthrow the government and must be stopped at all costs”. Should this movie ever get a US re-release on DVD, it makes you wonder if “they” will allow snippets like these to stay on the DVD, since the mainstream media uses a similar kind of public manipulation (and on an irrelevant note the word “terrorist” was censored from the re-release of ET, so you never know if the R1 re-release will keep it).

So overall, I strongly recommend this DVD. Although a Special Edition US release has been rumored, it’s been rumored for ages, so I would not hold my breath, especially after 9/11/01. And it’s a lot cheaper than trying to get the featureless Region 1 version. If you want this Region 2 DVD, you can buy it from
amazon.co.uk or from ebay

apl

FYI, I just watched the German disc last night and judging from the menu shots and the easter eggs, I'd say they are identical except for the cover art.
I haven't watched the making off yet, but the commmentary was pretty good. A little heavy on the compliments going back and forth, and a bit too much scene-for-scene description...but I came away from it feeling really good about JC and Piper...they both cared a lot about this film and I think it shows. The stereo mix was good and picture looked great. I highly recommend and am going to pick up the "Prince of Darkness" disc released by the same folks.
THANKS! apl

filmerp

Thanks for the review, Class! I didn't even know there was an SE for this DVD overseas. I'll have to add it to my list.

Class316

Oh I see. What about the trailer is it in the German version or not??

np!

apl

I didn't see a trailer on the german disc...but I'll poke around tonight and get back to you!

Class316

Ok cool. I was just wondering cause all websites seem to list the trailer as being there

apl

So the german disc DOESN'T have the trailer...it's identical to the UK DISC...except the UK art is better and it seems cheaper (in NYC the german goes for $32 vs $22 for the UK).
THANKS
apl