Nomads (1986)

Excellent but underrated film

best movie i've ever seen.

As Good As It Gets

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

"Nomads" could have been better if the plot and narrative has been more coherent and that more incident had taken place. I still recall seeing the video trailer for this rather odd movie back in 1986. From what I saw, "Nomads" had potential but this wasn't fulfilled in my opinion. Lesley Ann Down is rather wasted as the female lead. Her actual screen time is limited and she's absent for quite a while. Pierce Brosnan is ok as the doomed character who gets too close to the ancient tribe that he's tailing across Los Angeles. The opening scene at the hospital is pretty good as there is some intrigue. The parallel flashback portion tends to become bogged down rather quickly. One or two scenes are not bad but this film is largely unsuccessful.

The movie starts out slow and confused. Perhaps I'm simply imposing a 2013 movie-watching experience on a 1986 film. But I've seen plenty of pre-1986 films that were great. This one is awful. You occasionally get glimpses of a plot, but it's rare. Brosnan is a decent actor, but I could barely stand to watch the film because of his farcical French accent. And while he has a nice body, I don't know what the rear and frontal nudity has to do with the movie. In another scene, he defends himself against an interloper (Adam Ant), and while his swings all look like they miss by a good foot, the attacker still goes down, even though for one of the blows there is a lamppost between the Brosnan's arm and Ant. People appear in and out of nowhere and switch bodies--perhaps it's real, perhaps it's part of a transcendent consciousness, or even just a dream--who knows? Certainly not the audience. How could anybody think this was a scary movie? When the movie was made I was 10--perhaps I would have thought it was scary then.

This flick has been knocking around on Encore for the last few weeks and, never having seen it, I thought I'd give it a look. My reaction was mixed. While Brosnan does a really ridiculous French accent, the acting was decent, and the atmosphere was genuinely creepy.This was one of those movies that, like 'Near Dark', assumes the audience has half a brain and makes them think a little. What exactly are the Nomads? It's never spelled out - it's left up to the viewer to decide. Now, while this can be a good strategy (it worked like a charm in 'Near Dark'), sometimes you can go a little overboard.This was one of those times. While I have my own ideas as to what the Nomads were and what they did, a teensy bit of explanation from Director/Writer John McTiernan would've been useful.But overall, it was a decent way to spend 90 minutes. And check out the last scene... pretty trippy.

I recently rented this movie after reading about it on IMDb. I liked McTiernan's Predator and Red October movies and decided to check this one out. Its an interesting premise - but extremely poor acting by Ms. Down as the doctor completely ruined it for me. After a while, her blank look and monotonous delivery got on my nerves. I suspect McTiernan got her cheap - how else do you explain casting her? Brosnan (as Pommier) was OK, despite the poor french accent - but the french twist was an unnecessary distraction to begin with, in my opinion.Good plot, though I feel expanding on Pommier's previous experiences with Nomads in other cultures would have added a more sinister touch than just some street punks in a black van. And maybe its because I am watching the movie in 2004, but Ted Nugent's guitar set my nerves on edge and I had to repeatedly lower the volume.All in all, I was disappointed that I took the trouble to rent the video and have to drive down to the store again to drop it off. My advice - give it a pass.