Nomads (1986)

i must have seen a different film!!

Excellent adaptation.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I caught this in a movie theatre back in 1986 and I remember being less than thrilled. Pierce Brosnan plays Jean Charles Pommier (with the worst French accent you ever heard) who is tracked down and killed by some tribe he uncovered. Before he dies he whispers their name to doctor Flex (Lesley-Anne Downe) who is in turn hunted down by the tribe.The movie is boring and pointless with no scares and a stupid plot. Also just try to imagine Brosnan trying to play a French guy! Brosnan is a great actor but his French accent is downright hilarious. Downe does what she can with a seriously under written role. However it was fun seeing Adam Ant and Mary Woronov as part of the tribe (even though they have no dialogue). I will admit that this film had one scare--when you find out who is riding the motorcycle at the end. Still, that one scene doesn't make watching this any easier. Mostly forgotten--for good reason!

"Nomads" is a terminally boring and barely worthwhile effort.**SPOILERS**Working a grueling hospital shift, Dr. Flax Stafford, (Lesley-Anne Down) begins to feel very weird after meeting Jean-Charles Pommier, (Pierce Brosnan) an anthropology professor and begins to suffer from a series of strange visions. When it soon gets to be a little more than her friends can bear, she is tested by the staff for signs of what's happening while she begins to experience his life through some strange means. She begins to realizer that she is being possessed by him in order to find out his obsession with a specific roaming nomadic biker gang that's been terrorizing people for a long time until she realizes what the connection is between the two of them. Finally understanding what's going on, she vows to get away from the horrifying truth and solve the mystery of the gang.The Good News: There's only a few moments here that actually work. The early scenes, where it's hard to determine what's going on and are based around the confusion over what's happening, is actually not that bad and generates some decent moments, especially with the flashing images that appear to be from one source but come from another set, leaving this part feeling rather creepy and interesting. That's it all done in the first half of the film, with the wild hospital scenes also coming into play as well making really enjoyable. The chases at the end are also really good, with it's fun setting and only real use of putting in something with some adrenaline into it, which the rest of the film sorely lacks and manages to get something out of it. The only other part in here that manages to get anything decent out of it is the single sequence where, confronted inside a singularly creepy-looking house by a similarly creepy-looking apparition, is told the truth about what's happening and then disappears off into the darkened house, forcing him to chase them through the house. It's a long, creepy chase that actually does a lot of good and manages to have some really tense moments. Frankly, though, these are all the film has going for it.The Bad News: This is a thoroughly disappointing and disjointed effort. The fact that this one is so dull is one of the greatest problems with it. Nothing in here happens, as it's mainly just a bunch of scenes of him running around the gang trying not all that greatly to incorporate himself amongst them, which isn't exciting. Watching him walk around doing his worst at being incognito around them with some of the lamest tricks to try to hide the fact that he's spying on them is some of the lamest stuff around and offers up nothing interesting or exciting about these things. Since they're so flawed, it manages to make for some really lame sequences and are just so dull that there's nothing at all so impressive about the scenes, which take up nearly all the scenes in the middle of the film that there's nothing worthwhile in there. The other flaw in here has two big parts to it, the film's sheer incomprehensive storyline. This one has one of the single hardest plots to figure out in the world, making it nearly impossible to figure out or understand. It has something to do with an Eskimo spirit that only they believe in tormenting the professor, but even that's a stretch to fully use in here, it's so hard to understand. There's also the fact that it's nearly impossible to figure out if what we're seeing is even real or not. This has an ability to show the scene as being through the one person's eyes, then switching it around to show that it's really about the person possessing the other one and seeing life through their eyes. It's all done in a very confusing manner and it's impossible to figure out. The inherent dullness, though, constitutes the biggest flaw.The Final Verdict: Barely features anything worthwhile at all, and those few good moments are so beaten down by the negatives that it all falls apart badly. If you want to give it a shot, go ahead, but keep expectations low, but those who know this won't appeal to them shouldn't waste time on it.Rated R: Violence, Language, Nudity and a mild sex scene

~Spoiler~ Watch as Adam Ant and Mary Woronov chase Pierce Brosnan to an 80's soundtrack with guitar licks provided by Ted Nugent in Nomads. I really have no idea what I just watched. Let me see if I can attempt to make this thing make sense for myself. Pierce Brosnan is a French anthropologist who studies nomadic tribes around the globe. He moves to California and, at the film's opening, we find him at a hospital. He dies there and whispers his last words to nurse Leslie Anne Down who then becomes possessed by his memories. Through flashbacks she witnesses Brosnan's last days as he tracks a modern nomadic gang through the city. However, these nomads may not be human. They may be mythological spirits who have actually been tracking Brosnan all along. Sounds complicated, no? Well that's not really even scratching the surface with this movie. There's a lot more going on but I'll leave it to you to answer some of the more nerve-wracking questions. Let's just say there's no linear narrative and the convoluted script is unapologetic. We see twist after twist after twist and hope the end is in sight soon. I must confess, I was getting really restless towards the end of the film. I can say that the end image does bring some coherency to the first 90 minutes, but I'm still missing a piece of the puzzle. It's not at all what I expected out of director John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard). Surprisingly subtle stuff for a McTiernan film. Nomads is a film that will benefit from repeat viewings.

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.