Long Weekend (2008)

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.

Fmovies: When I watched this movie at a festival in Germany (Fantasy Filmfest Nights) I wasn't aware of the fact, that this was a Remake. Unfortunately I haven't watched the Original up to this point, but really want to do so. Especially after being told by many viewers, that the original movie is a subtler option to this version of the subject matter.

Jim Caviezel is a really good actor and he plays it pretty straight here. While he has to do some pretty disgusting and despicable things, you still feel for him (most of the time). And that's why I quite liked the movie (plus it's premise of course, which some people might find more suitable than M. Nights Happening).

While the title might be irritating to some (you could suspect a teen comedy after all), this dark thriller has quit some punches (also visually), that try to hammer the message into your head ... When I get to watch the original, I will know if is a decent approach or not.

Obviously, the director of this picture intended to wrap his environmental message into a thriller, but literally got lost on the way -- just like the characters in the film. Really disappointing.

The acting isn't that bad, but the design of the characters is rather limiting. Especially the role of the nagging wife. The worst thing is that she never stops complaining. And I don't feel like watching a couple arguing and fighting throughout the entire film -- it doesn't add anything to a story that lacks substance.

On the upside, the location is exceptionally beautiful, supporting the underlying environmental theme.

Net, you keep waiting for something to happen, only to be surprised by a sudden radical and totally exaggerated series of events at the end.

Long Weekend fmovies. Sometimes I find myself doing a double-take when I read film reviews on IMDb.com. I gauge the stars and ponder the reviews usually basing my decision whether to see the film upon them. Man, am I glad I went against the grain with Long Weekend. Frankly, I am surprised by the contrast between my opinion and the average and I don't usually even care much for man against nature thrillers.

First, let's clear the air. This film is indeed a horror film. Granted there are no chainsaws or neanderthals in hockey masks. There is no torture porn, cannibalism, or any of that other run-of-the-mill garbage they call horror these days. Oh, and yeah, it does slowly simmer to a boil which probably ticks off those with short attention spans. However, this film delivers the chills and the pay-off is worth the time invested.

Peter (James Caviezel) and Carla (Claudia Karvan) are a feuding couple one step away from divorce who head towards a secluded Australian beach on a camping trip. The common thread is a disrespect for nature which comes back to haunt them. While Peter is shooting haphazardly at anything that moves with his father's old rifle, Carla is spraying ants and breaking eagles' eggs. Mother Nature finally loses her patience and reminds the two who is boss.

Now I know that sounds like an all too familiar plot, but in Long Weekend the formulas work and you can't help but find yourself feeling the dread that slowly envelopes Peter and Carla as they begin to realize they are not welcome.

If, like me, you're tired of the Saws and backwoods inbreds chowing down on idiot teens, give Long Weekend a chance. You'll be pleasantly surprised and glad you did.

I actually enjoyed this film. The symbolism of the wife destroying the eagle's egg, mirrors the fact that she had got rid of their baby - the whole cause of the friction and distance between the couple. Their relationship is stretched to the limit, the tension between them, combined with the general unsettling atmosphere of being 'in the middle of nowhere'. Lots of creepy crawlies, the haunting dugong slowly creeping up the beach, the mysterious arrows leading round and round. I really thought the tension was built up well, when Pete goes to see the family in the camper van, you realise that something is seriously wrong and even though you don't particularly like the characters I don't think we actually want them to die. I felt a bit sorry for Peter, he was trying to make an effort to rebuild bridges but she doesn't care. The film builds to a disorientating, but claustrophobic ending, getting lost and feeling alone. Then the 'explosive' ending capped things off nicely. I liked it.

Very well done...

With nature just simply being nature, the fears of each individual were elevated to such a destructive level that each characters' own demise was both self-inflicted and imminent! Interesting how people are quick to judge nature as the aggressor, much like sharks being monsters. The characters' ignorance towards nature contributed to their fears which were central to each deadly circumstance.

The dysfunctional relationship gave this couple no chance of working together. The situation played on their vulnerable emotional states and heightened defensive attitudes towards each other.

The ingenuity of this work was that there was actually nothing in nature that would have threatened these characters lives.

Fear was portrayed as the greater destructive force!