Long Weekend (1979)

ridiculous rating

Please don't spend money on this.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Got sucked in by the IMDb rating for what turned out to be a long bit of disjoint rubbish, and stupid scene after stupid scene with Lousy acting, even for it's time, albeit for an interesting storyline/plot. And typical of many Australian movies of the period, trying to impress the overseas audience, with a couple of gratuitous scenes of all of the famous Australian wildlife, kangaroos, koalas, blue tongue lizard, wedge-tail eagle, cockatoos and the elusive Tasmanian Devil: and for those who don't know their Australian natural history very well, it doesn't really matter what the elusive Tasmanian Devil (which is called that because it is ONLY found in Tasmania), is doing on a mainland Australian beach. The man is an environmental vandal and the woman a typical frustrated/nagging suburban cliché, both are out of their comfort zones in the wild (nature). Man with a gun, as an answer to whatever he doesn't understand, whose answer is to shoot willy nilly in the direction of any nightly sound: and one of the stupid scenes is- down comes a woman's shoe when he shoots in the night sky. Both the man and woman manage to drive round in circles, woman at night, and man during the day. and don't even wonder, What's the point of having a 4wheel drive, if after you get bogged, you (man) simply abandon the car and run around like a chook without a head. This is not a movie of nature reaking revenge on two city slickers, but more a movie of two city slickers way out of their element.

Here you'll find ninety minutes of hilarious, uproarious kitsch! It has to be seen to be believed. It's funnier than almost any comedy out there. B-film absurdity at its very best. WATCH IT.How do I begin to describe it? Killer ducks? Diabolical dugongs? A vindictive eucalypt? A possessed possum? A misplaced Tasmanian devil? The.....acting? The......dialogue?No matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to make a parody as charming or as amusing as this little Australian jewel. Its message is very clear: IF YOU THROW YOUR CIGARETTE BUTTS OUT OF THE CAR WINDOW, A GANG OF COCKATOOS JUST MIGHT MESS YOU UP FOR LIFE. And you can forget about camping. Especially the high camp camping we have here.Again: WATCH THIS FILM. You'll be penetrated with FEAR.

LONG WEEKEND might not be for everyone - it is slow and subtle and the two leads are suffering from a tragedy and full of self-pity and complaints and I can see how their bickering could get on a viewer's nerves. But if you STAY WITH THIS film - it pays off. It is because of the slow pace of this film that everything builds perfectly - long a slow boiling pot - bit by bit - as they abuse each other and the natural surroundings around them - and shoot at animals and throw trash in the ocean and basically act like many humans in nature - "I am here and screw everything else" - it all comes to a head and punches you in the face. John Hargreaves is a very underrated Australian actor - he worked a lot in the 70's and 80's (Phar Lap, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, etc.) and sadly died rather young - but he gives a terrific performance playing a rather despicable guy - and if he does not look like a blond Aussie Clive Owen - then I don't know who does.

From reading the other reviews I am apparently in the minority here. I truly enjoy eerie, deliberately paced Aussie films like Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave, but I need to care about or at least empathize with the main characters. These 2 protagonists just left me cold. I couldn't believe for one second that they would go off to the wilds on a long weekend of roughing it, and it was no fun watching them bicker and sulk for 90 minutes. Even when things are going downhill and any sensible person would get the hell out of there, the guy behaves like a total tool and stays. The big revelation at the hour mark seemed like a ridiculous plot device thrown in to keep the viewer interested, rather than a real life situation, and did nothing to explain why the wife would have ever agreed to the weekend trip to the outback beach.I will give both actors credit as they obviously tried hard with their characters, but the script gives them nothing to work with. To call this a classic as some here have done is extremely generous. I'd suggest watching a lot more films before bestowing that honor on this flick. For a more fun "nature turns the tables on man" flick, watch Frogs from 1972; it's silly but enjoyable. For a truly creepy lost in the woods movie, stick with Blair Witch Project.