The Long Weekend review (1 stars out of 5)

trailer


Ok....so I decided to take 90 minutes of my life and give this movie a go eventhough the title was switched at the last minute from "Nature's Grave". Last minute title changes are never good. It's a remake that stars Jim Caviezel who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, so it gave the movie some legitimacy....or so I thought. The movie is about a couple, who are obviously having marital problems, who decide to go on a camping getaway in Australia...out in the middle of nowhere...that doesn't exist according to the locals (don't ask). When they reach their desolate camp site, they start "disrespecting" nature by littering and killing the local wildlife. Then nature turns on them and they start getting attacked by the wildlife. Thats the jist...or so you think. The movie in itself is more about the turmoil of the couple and their conflict. It starts off pretty good and then gradually loses itself in it's preachiness. It's almost as if the writers got to a certain point in the movie and had no idea what to do and just started throwing things out there. There are many things that happen throughout the movie that just don't make sense or get explained. Peter (Caviezel) shoots a shadowy thing in the water that's "stalking" him and it ends up being a seal/manatee looking thing. That's not the weird part. After he kills it, it washes up on shore. Then as each day goes by, the carcass keeps moving up towards their campsite. You never see it move, but it does. Now....they dont explain anything about this. They dont say whether the mantee thing is alive or dead. Or the significance of it moving a couple feet closer to their campsite every night. Then there is another scene where the couple encounter another camping family. Without giving away spoilers, the other family's part in the film is never explained. That side plot couldve added to the suspense of the movie, but it doesnt get explained either. In fact, it seems completely out of place. Almost as if you were watching a completely different movie for 10 minutes. That's only 2 examples of unexplained scenes in the movie and there's a slew of others that I won't even go into. The sad thing about all this is the movie had a lot of potential. It has a good amount of suspense and dread, but doesnt do anything with it. When the movie is over, you feel cheated because it seems like it should've been better. I dont mind movies not explaining everything and making the viewer figure out some things on their own....but this is ridiculous. Its a shame too because the acting was on-point. But the only thing this movie has to offer was a pretty cool scene where a semi-truck meets a body. In a way....thats how I felt when the credits started rolling.