Long Weekend

What about the dog??? Why leave it locked in the car, and how did it survive the crazy driving and eventual collision with the (already dead) tree?

I have never seen a more annoying role in a movie than Jim Caviezel in this one.

She: "what are you doing to that tree..?"

He:" ...uhh.. chopping it down"

She: "why?"

He:"...uh....why not..?? ..firewood..." oomph. Facepalm.

________

She: "what is that?"

He: "oh yes, look at that. I bought, I got a spear gun..." picks up the spear gun and smiles to it.

She: "what the hell are you gonna do with that??"

He: "I don't know...... shoot a fish?" points the speargun at her and grins.

She : "be careful where you point at...". Etc. Etc.

If you don't have a problem watching such an obnoxious guy who annoys the viewer every time he is doing something and every time he speaks, then you might like this movie. Because, actually it is not a bad thriller.

. .

There are very few things in life that are more annoying than feeling like you've gotten the old bait and switch. That's kind of what this movie delivers. I realize it's not the movie's fault that IMDb has "horror" as a tag for this movie, but still...no. No to this being in any way a horror movie. I think calling it a thriller is even a bit of a stretch. There's a few tense moments, but on the whole it's just a drama about two people who can't stand each other.

The premise of the movie follows a husband and wife over a long weekend getaway to the beach in Australia. The problem is that the friends they are trying to meet up with never arrive. Oh...and they hate each other. That too. The whole running thread of them constantly pissing off nature is hardly even a subplot, but somehow manages to be the impetus of all the bad things that happen. I get it...it's bad to litter and be a general prick towards nature. I wholeheartedly agree. But then again I seriously doubt nature has time to waste being a vengeful jackass to two small time folks when there are...say...millions of other people harming the environment in much more serious ways. But I guess that's the point (maybe); if John Everyman isn't kind to nature, nature will quite literally kill him. Or something. Regardless, Long Weekend manages to be middle of the road at best in just about every aspect. There's nothing here I'd even remotely call horror, it fails to foster any sort of paranoia or even cheap jumpy thrills like a good thrill, and pretty much everyone involved is thoroughly unlikeable.

That's pretty much how I would sum up the whole movie...thoroughly unlikeable. Which is really a shame since I really like some of Jim Caveizel's (or however you spell his last name) other work. I wouldn't say you should avoid this movie, but there's certainly better movies with similar themes.

Peter (James Caviezel) and Carla (Claudia Karvan) have a wasted marriage and constant friction. Peter buys expensive camping apparatuses and despite the protests of Carla, he travels with her and their dog Cricket to camp in the isolated Moondah Beach in the North Coast with his friend Luke and his girlfriend during the rainy holiday. Peter stops in a pub in the Eggleston Hotel and leaves a message to Luke with the owner of the pub. When Peter takes the shortcut to reach the beach, he gets lost and the couple spends the night sleeping in their truck. On the next morning, Peter organizes the campsite and disturbs the nature with his rifle. Along the two days, the couple deteriorates their relationship while the nature revenges the bad treatment.

"Long Weekend" is a weird movie, actually a remake of Collin Eggleston's movie of 1978 that I saw many years ago on 13 March 2001 and also recalls "Lost Things" when the couple finds that it is impossible to leave the spot. The intention would be to show a couple with problems in their relationship that spends the holiday trying to resolve their issues, but they mistreat the nature and find the nature's punishment in the end. There is also a discreet homage to the original director with the name of the hotel where they stop to buy rum and leave a message to Luke. Unfortunately this remake is confused and the objective of the plot is not clear; however the anguishing and claustrophobic condition of Peter and Carla that seems to be in the limbo of their existence trapped in an isolated area and incapable to find a way out is the worthwhile part of this movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Isolados" ("Isolated")

I loved the original Long Weekend....Very underrated movie.

This remake was literally a scene for scene remake, no new ideas, so I suppose if you have seen the original and remember it fairly well, you are going to no what happens next! But I remember the original fairly well (I have the SYNAPSE DVD) but I still enjoyed Natures Grave. Jim Caviezel and Claudia Cavan play the unhappy couple well.

The film basically is a married couple who are having a rough time go away for a long weekend, and find themselves on an isolated beach. They treat the place with total disrespect (chucking away cigarette butts, litter, shooting bottles)) and shooting the animals...then nature turns on them! Pretty slow but always interesting. Solid acting. Little gore, so not much to offend here.

Tidy little movie. Surprised about the negative reviews really.

7.5/10.