3-Day Weekend (2008)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Blistering performances.

I generally liked this movie. A friend I was watching it with said that he did not, and that it was just full of cliché's. Well - he was right; but sometimes, cliché's are comfortable. With low budget indipendant gay films, I don't go in expecting much other than some nudity and cute guys. This movie delivered that, but also a nice story without the usual happy ending.Sure - there were some scenes where the dialog was a bit stilted; but I kind of found that charming as well. I found this a nice way to spend an hour and a half during the evening, curled up on the couch in my pajamas.

'3-Day Weekend' seemed like it was dreamt up in a dark gay bar one night by best buds who had a bit too much and Donna Summer's 'Last Dance' was playing signifying it was closing time. The nicest thing I could say about this movie was that, though they attempted to pick some good looking guys and only three actually were (Carlisle, Jones and Harrison,) they did actually pick all-around guys: bears, queens, someone for everyone. That is, if you only like Caucasians. Unfortunately, everything else either tried too hard, such as the clichéd and predictable dialogue, mostly amateur acting or the tired old drama, almost making this a gay-themed Tyler Perry film. Two couples bring four strangers to a beautiful cabin in the desert. Well, they called it the desert – I live in the desert – Phoenix, AZ, and this is not a desert. Prescott or Flagstaff, AZ, perhaps, but not the real desert. Anyways, they invited these four gay guys with four unique personalities "just for fun." Again, drama ensues and couples fight to end or start to build their relationships while having sex or orgies. Yeah, there's a lot of nudity, mostly butts, to look at. But for the most part, it's just blah, blah, blah. I will say this, the best scene of the movie, didn't even make it in the film – and I'm almost 100% sure it wasn't meant to be. Watch the alternative ending. It had me rolling. Typically, I won't judge a film on DVD extras, or things it is not, but this made up for a lot of the bad in the film. (Ironically, if it had made it in the film, it would certainly be a WTF ending and wouldn't have been as funny.)

The wino who wrote the one other review of this movie is right; this movie is no 'Citizen Kane.' The association of rosebud with this cast would turn even a vegetarian off tossed salad.And, the other reviewer is also right in stating that the acting is not good. It's like watching the understudies in community theater perform; it's a fair job, but not good.The production is competent; yet, with a tighter story and better acting this movie could have been better. But, even so, the movie would only achieve mediocrity because it's not a very interesting story: a bunch of gay white guys lounge around a comfortable country retreat and intermittently bemoan their relationships and nail one another. The theme of getting older and ending-up alone recurs but it doesn't receive much depth of exploration and consequently doesn't have much of an impact. Some of the characters mention AIDS a couple of times in a passing way but never really explore it as an issue either. Moreover, the issue of prostitution is treated as lite-fare, which might work for a comedy but not a drama. These themes are presented so much better in other low-budget movies with little known, but quite competent actors.Mitchell's "Shortbus" has a decent scene that shows the aging and isolation theme in a brief but immensely better manner. It's the sequence where the twinkie is talking to the old mayor in the salon.Araki's 'The Living End' provides a trenchant perspective of the AIDS issue in a compelling and reactionary story of lost youth.Morrissey's trilogy of 'Flesh', 'Trash' and 'Heat' are shoddy productions but fascinating to watch because the characters are captivating. Those actors, like Dallesandro, were unknown and untrained but imbued a sense of realism that the actors in this flick can't seem to achieve. Also, Morrissey presents male prostitution in a matter-of-fact manner; it isn't glamorized, vilified or trivialized. So, there are interesting gay-themed movies, but 3-day weekend isn't one of them.

Finally, a gay-themed film that just works. Sure the acting isn't perfect, but this micro-budget rises above the surface in queer film-making. The film doesn't do a Hollywood-ized ending of boy and boy reunite; rather, the film uses the three act narrative to lend its protagonist to leave learning something throughout. The use of "threes" is deftly threaded throughout the film...watch for it--three ways, three perspectives on sex with three boys sunbathing, three day weekend, three men who have slept with the same person, etc. It's smart, really smart, and there's something that the filmmaker wants to say within. It's not Citizen Kane, but doesn't try to be. It's just a nice 84 minutes with a big pink bow tied in the end. It's just as pleasant as a springtime glass of Chablis or summertime ale.