Average Rating: 4.3/10
Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 15
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 6,517
Czech New Wave leader Ivan Passer picks up the torch originally ignited by Russian director Sergei Bodrov to bring Central Asia's first-ever event film to the light of the silver screen. Penned by Russian screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov, Nomad tells the tale of 18th-century Kazak military strategist Ablai Khan -- a forward-thinking visionary whose efforts to unify his country eventually helped to define Kazakhstan's borders. Warned by a mystical Kazak warrior named Oraz (Jason Scott Lee) that a
Mar 16, 2007 Wide
Jul 24, 2007
The Weinstein Co.
All Critics (18) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (1) | Rotten (16) | DVD (7)
The film is stilted and lame. Worse, the acting is as grim as the story is primeval.
The filmmakers don't appear to know what's important, let alone how to pace an epic for big drama and maximum thrills.
Kazakhstan supposedly spent $40 million in making this martial-arts epic. That bought a laughably corny Hollywood B-movie, gorgeous scenery, Hollywood B-actors and extras who plainly weren't members of the Screen Extras Guild.
It harks back to those sand-and-sandals epics of the 1950s and '60s, with an international cast speaking in awkwardly dubbed English.
Though it has a familiar inevitability, the journey is generally compelling, thanks to fierce battles, a gorgeous landscape and heartfelt performances.
While the film has impressive 18th-century trappings and vivid battle scenes, the plotting and acting are rudimentary.
It really isn't my cup of tea.
Awkward casting, dubbing mar violent Kazakh tale.
Rent it as a suitable test for your new widescreen TV, but don't expect movie magic.
Everything would be OK if the actors didn't open their mouths.
It embraces every cliché in the epic-movie playbook, relies too heavily on stale dialogue delivered in somber tones and offers little to its actors besides the opportunity to fashion some great-looking Eurasian costumes.
Meant to be sweeping and inspirational, Nomad is instead lurching and laughable, with terrible writing, awkward acting and clueless direction.
The use of "idiot plotting" to advance the story makes this laughable when it should be poetic.
Despite the central Asian locale, the film is largely rooted in the conventions of the American westerns and good old Hollywood Biblical epics like The Ten Commandments, as well as many of their attendant clichés.
In the American-release version of the picture, the emphasis on spectacle and the paring away of all but the most essential exposition ends up having the opposite of its intended effect.
A throwback to yeteryear's epics, Kazakhstan's official entry for the Foreign-Language Oscar is an old-fashioned actioner using real locales and extras rather than CGI effects; lack of unified vision may derive from too many directors behind the camera
The gorgeous locations and epic fight scenes don't compensate for laughable dialogues, bad acting and a terrible story full of clichés.
February 17, 2010Super Reviewer
The story of a young warrior uniting the Kazakh tribes of the vast tundra plains against Mongolian invaders. Although it combines a few international B-movie stars to tell this tale, the film actually looks really good and far from cheap. The cinematography and landscapes are very beautiful, the soundtrack nicely
February 6, 2008Super Reviewer
| 25% | Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Par... |
| 81% | Kung Fu Panda 2 |
| 83% | Rise of the Planet of the Apes |
| 94% | Moneyball |
| 59% | Real Steel |
| 50% | The Rum Diary |
| 92% | Take Shelter |
| 31% | The Human Centipede II (Full Seq... |
| 72% | Tiny Furniture |
| 95% | Elite Squad: The Enemy Within |
The Rum Diary, Take Shelter
What are his 10 best movies ever?
See the all-new action-packed trailer!
The Vow leads record-breaking...