NOMADS (1986)

Late one night, Los Angeles emergency room doctor Lesley-Anne Down is looking at a new patient (Pierce Brosnan) who appears to be stark raving mad.  He's strapped to a gurney, but then in some kind of death burst he launches up and bites her on the ear while saying "They are not there; they are Innuat."  Then he falls over as dead as a doornail. Somehow the ear bite transferred all of his recent memories from his noddle into her noodle and now she's going around in a dream state reliving his interactions with a group of evil spirits that dress up in human form.

That's a cool idea, unfortunately, instead of going for a straightforward horror movie the filmmakers went with the dreamy urban thriller route.  It worked for about 30 minutes then got too discombobulated for my liking.  Also, the evil spirits weren't scary and they were never fully explained.  Are they angry about something or are they just mischievous?  Either way they didn't seem to even be interested in Brosnan until he started pestering them!!!  How can I have any sympathy for a character that purposely puts himself in harms way, either on purpose or by his own stupidity?

Strong start, nice photography, interesting story idea, good acting, highly disappointing second half with a laughable ending, non-threatening punks, low gas prices, Pierce Brosnan's butt cheeks, 80's guitar rock score.  Not really worth watching, especially if you are looking for a horror movie.

STONE (1974)

Watchable biker movie about a undercover cop who's ridin' with a motorcycle gang to see who's been picking them off one-by-one assassination style.  As far as biker movies go, STONE is fairly lightweight.  The main thing these bikers do is just lay around in their hideaway all day and night smoking weed and talking about how cool they are.  Occasionally they drive down to the bar to get a drink and talk about how cool they are.  That's about it.  Still though, I kinda enjoyed it, the music was especially awesome.  I just wish that they did something!

I appreciate the cultural/cinematic significance of STONE (and the hard work that went into making it) but that doesn't change the fact that it doesn't hold up very well.  Yeah, the characters are all likeable, but the whole thing is just too tame.  There's barely any violence, only a few quick glimpses of nudity, lightweight drug use, light cussing.  If you're into cult movies, biker movies and/or 70's Australian cinema then you'll probably enjoy it but most other people would just see it as dated and lacking.

I do want to give a shout out to whoever the stunt person was that jumped off the cliff into the water.  That was amazing!!!  It was also cool to see a pre-MAD MAX Toecutter. "The Nightrider. That is his name...the Nightrider."

If you need me I'll be in my room watching STONE COLD.