John Carpenter directs Roddy Piper, Keith David and Meg Foster in this cult paranoid thriller about a drifter who discovers aliens walk secretly among us and probably vote Republican.

A bubblegum movie that sits better in your memory banks than on your flatscreen. There are the illicit thrills of the tongue in cheek 10 minute long alley fight, the occasional inspired line and the world as seen through the bullshit filtering Ray Bans but all in, this is Carpenter noticeably on the wane. The acting just about pasts muster (Kurt Russell is a noticeable loss), the plotting almost obnoxiously weak, it is as loose as a motherfucker, and the aliens, once revealed, appear no tangible threat apart from in their competitive, inflitrating politics. A great reputation for a merely good, albeit silly, albeit prescient movie.

7