TV MOVIE REVIEW: Reefer Madness: the Movie Musical (Showtime, 2005)
The motion picture review you are about to read may startle you. It would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the awesomeness of a well-made movie which is ignored by mainstream entertainment in alarmingly increasing numbers. You will now READ a short review on the original 1936 film and a review on the 2005 movie musical from Showtime — based on the threat of “Marihuana” — The Real Public Enemy Number One!
Many years ago I picked up the DVD for Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical while waiting for my car to be fixed. I jumped at it when I saw that Ana Gasteyer and Neve Campbell were in it. I had never seen the original 1936 Reefer Madness, so I decided to just watch the movie for Neve Campbell alone because she’s been smoking hot since Scream. Imagine my surprise when I found out that in the bonus features of the DVD, the original version of Reefer Madness could be found. I made sure to watch that film first, and it was quite the hilarious ride.
The characters are brought to light quickly in this 1930’s Christian morality play about the dangers of “marihuana” — Anglicized for easy American pronunciation — the dealers, the kids and our narrator Dr. Carrol. With a sole government reference to validate himself, the good doctor tells us how some kids got caught up in drugs and how a couple of girls died as a result. The film smacks of propaganda and misinformation, as I had heard in college. If only someone had made a movie about Frederic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, it’d be a companion to the fear-mongering of Reefer Madness. Equally as bad in the fear-mongering department (with tongue firmly in cheek) is the 2004 stage musical of the same name that was made into the 2005 Showtime cable TV movie we’re reviewing now. I compared this movie to the original film and the only way to truly describe what was shown is “What the hell?” and sundry exclamations. Because there’s a lot of those moments when making comparisons to the tame manner of Reefer Madness.
After the flesh-eating reefer zombie attack (?!?) seeming brought upon attendees of a meeting headed up by our Narrator (Alan Cummings, X-Men 2: X-Men United, Cabaret), we meet main character Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell, voice of “Max Steel” [TV-KidsWB]) and his steady girl Mary Lane (Kristin Bell, “Veronica Mars” [TV-UPN], Frozen, “The Good Place” [TV-NBC]). They are so pure and white-bread, I can’t bear to make any jokes at their expense…except when they burst into song about being like Romeo and Juliet, and how they hope the ending is happy — just like they’ll be when they marry.
Unfortunately, Jimmy gets caught up in some drug business with the likes of Jack (Steve Weber, Dracula: Dead and Loving It), his moll Mae (Ana Gasteyer, “Saturday Night Live” [TV-NBC]) and flunkies Sally (Broadway actress Amy Spanger, Synecdoche, New York) and Ralph (John Kassir, the voice of the Cryptkeeper on “Tales from the Crypt” [TV-HBO]). They get Jimmy high on reefer, turning him into a dope fiend that ignores everything in his life. Even after a visit from Jesus (Robert Torti, Race to Witch Mountain [2009], Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat [1999], “Generations” [TV-NBC]), Jimmy still chooses to toke up and tune everything out…including Mary Lane. To think, all he wanted to do was learn to dance.
When Mary Lane tries to get him back by going to the reefer den, some foul stuff goes down that parallels the events in the original. With drastic changes to suit the wants of the 21st Century world and the nature of musicals, it ends up as a delightfully crazy piece of film that might not get seen by everyone. But then again, not being seen by everyone isn’t necessarily a bad thing because there’s always the next pass. So take a hit off Reefer Madness: the Movie Musical. You’ll be high on laughter in no-time.
CHOICE CUTS:
- Brother and sister perform well in this movie — those two being Christian Campbell and his sister Neve (Scream 2, The Canterbury Ghost) as Miss Poppy.
- Who knew Veronica Mars could be so cute?
- Ah, Ana Gasteyer. I miss you on SNL. Your portrayal of Celine Dion and Martha Stewart will go down in history, as should this performance because it was awesome.
- Hm. I’m glad that they didn’t cast pre-cancellation Michael Richards (Kramer from “Seinfeld” [TV]) as Ralph, because that’d be too easy.
- Is it just me, or does the Ralph in the movie musical look like ‘Hotfingers’ Piralli from the original film and the Ralph in the 1936 film look like Jude Law?
- FUN FACT: the narrator of the movie musical is made to look like Dr. Carrol from the original film.
- FUN FACT: In the early 1970s, the rediscovered 1936 Reefer Madness was the first movie distributed by a very small company called New Line Cinema to college campuses to great success.
- Christine Lakin (Whatever It Takes, Blue Demon, “Step by Step” [TV-ABC]) is pretty hot as Joan of Arc. Looks like her body armor was sculpted to accentuate and indicate.
- Robert Torti’s portrayal of Jesus in this film is spectacular. The casual tossing of communion wafers and gold boots really set this depiction of the Son of God apart from all the rest, yet the performance brings to mind Jesus Christ: Superstar.
- Barring the true madness found in the movie musical (sexual comedy, blind zealotry and top-notch performances all around), the weed smoking takes a backseat. And that’s the best part.
- PRICELESS QUOTE: One of the meeting’s attendee at the beginning of the movie, trying to read the subject line on the program: “Mari-juh…mari-juh… Does anyone know what this says? I don’t speak Mexican.”
- PRICELESS QUOTE: Our narrator has something more to say concerning a connection between burgeoning contemporary music and “marihuana”: “Do your children enjoy jazz music? For I am here to tell you that Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, and the whole weed-blowing ginger-colored lot are merely masquerading as musicians and are, in fact, agents of evil. Reefer slows down the smoker’s sense of time, allowing him to squeeze in unnecessary grace notes, giving this voodoo music the power to hypnotize white women into indulging in acts of unspeakable degradation.”
What really makes me laugh about this movie is the length that the people involved in this production went to exaggerate and parody the initial reaction that is Reefer Madness. The original film went on a rant, saying that weed is more addictive than heroin, dramatizing tragic events to scare people into compliance. That’s no reason to retaliate by speculating on how people think by placing flesh-eating zombies in the place of reefer addicts, or making erroneous inferences that equates sexual deviancy with Black people (YOU KNEW IT WAS COMING) — a subject never touched on in the 1936 film. How irresponsible is that? As irresponsible as it is funny. And that’s plenty.
