For those of you who thought The Rock was the first wrestler-turned-actor: "They Live"

I have no excuses for this one. It's all on me.

Sure, I can champion this lesser effort from John Carpenter as a guilty pleasure, which it is. I also can note that it most definitely bests even more subpar Carpenter films, such as "Ghosts of Mars." But hey, when you're watching a movie with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as the lead/hero, you clearly have problems.

It's hard to remember when I first saw "They Live," but I suspect it was when I was in college, when other like-minded young men and I could fully appreciate Piper's strutting through this rather silly plot. The basic idea isn't so bad, but the abundance of holes and amount of faith Carpenter asks us to have while watching events unfold make this a curiosity at best.

Our story has unnamed drifter Piper just getting by in L.A. when he comes across some sunglassses that allow him to see the real world. That is, a world controlled by some kind of ghoulish aliens who are manipulating humans with subliminal messages, i.e. subsonic "Sleep" commands and hidden orders such as "Marry and Reproduce" in advertisements.

As you might imagine, this unsettles Roddy a bit, but instead of cowering, he decides to bring down the aliens, who are conveniently unnamed and largely unknown. Hey, they're aliens and they're controlling us! That's all we need to know, dammit!

Like I said, it's pretty flimsy and simple, but it does allow Piper to deliver some pretty hilarious lines. My favorites:

3. "Mama don't like tattletales."
2. "Life's a bitch, and she's back in heat."

and ... wait for it ...

1. "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I am all out of bubble gum."

Another great thing about this movie: It has one of the best fight scenes ever. None of this whirly-twirly, wire-team crap ... not a lot of blood flying around ... just good old-fashioned two guys beating on each other in an alley. Roddy and classic "That Guy" Keith David go at it for several minutes, and you'd think it was over a few times before it finally is. Really, it's something to see.

Otherwise, this pretty much depends on how much you like Carpenter and are willing to accept his simplistic storytelling. Me? Well, I think I paid to see "Ghosts of Mars," so there you go. "They Live" might not be "Halloween" or even "Starman," but it's not "Memoirs of an Invisible Man," either.