Search - Reefer Madness on DVD

Reefer Madness

Actor(s): Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell, Neve Campbell, Alan Cumming
Director(s): Andy Fickman
13

Movie Details

MPAA Rating: R
Content Advisory: Drug Content
Movie Release: 2004
DVD Release: 11/08/2005
Format: DVD - Color,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned
Audio Tracks: English
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Number of Discs: 1
Run Time: 1 hrs 49 mins
Studio: Showtime Entertainment
Members Wishing: 11
Genres: Comedy, Musical, Parody/Spoof, Musical Comedy, Stoner Comedy

DVD Synopsis

The made-for-cable musical satire Reefer Madness is based on the award-winning play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the notorious -- and deliciously awful -- 1936 anti-marijuana film originally titled Tell Your Children. A smarmy lecturer (Alan Cumming in the first of his three roles in the film) arrives in a typical small town of the late '30s to warn the populace of the dangers of the "evil weed," bringing along a lurid propaganda film to dramatize his message. In broad, unsubtle, and hilarious strokes, the movie-within-a-movie shows how even a squeaky-clean pair of highschoolers named Mary Lane (Kristen Bell) and Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell) can become hopeless dope addicts by succumbing to the lure of marijuana. Reefer Madness is not only a savage skewering of the original black-and-white movie (some of the musical's campiest lines are taken directly from the earlier script!), but also a devastating attack on what playwrights Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney consider to be the real reason that the 1936 movie was made: to frighten the public out of their wits in order to keep them under the thumb of an oppressive government. Thus, the musical manages to take a number of not-so-veiled swipes at xenophobia, racism, McCarthyism, the Bush Administration's Homeland Security policy, and even the recent FCC clampdown on "offensive" TV fare (one of the film's highlights is a garish nightclub number featuring Jesus Christ). The ebulliently staged songs include "The Stuff," "Down at the Ol' Five and Dime," "Lonely Pew," "Listen to Jesus Jimmy," "Mary Jane/Mary Lane," "The Brownie Song," "Tell 'Em the Truth," and the title number. Officially titled Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, this film first aired April 16, 2005, on the Showtime cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actors

Kristen Bell - Mary Lane
Christian Campbell - Jimmy Harper
Neve Campbell - Miss Poppy
Alan Cumming - Lecturer
Alan Cumming - Goat-Man

Member Movie Reviews

Kyle T. (KingKong) from KINSTON, NC wrote on 11/12/2008...

Based a the 1936 propaganda film, REEFER MADNESS: THE MUSICAL is set up as a PTA viewing of a propaganda film about the effects marijuana has on two youths. The musical numbers, which are hilarious, may not look as grand in scale as something like CHICAGO, but they are still large, over-the-top, and well-choreographed. SHOtime's official website had this to say: "One of the most complicated musicals filmed for television, the movie contains sixteen musical sequences and several complex large-scale dance numbers. And every member of the cast was proud to display their real singing voice." Everyone puts in top-notch performances for a film that isn't supposed to be taken seriously in the first place. The true stand-outs are the lead Christian Campbell, Alan Cumming, and Ana Gasteyer. She does a great job with her role as a drug-dealer's abused girlfriend, who would love it if he just *accidently* fell off a cliff. The story is all in good fun, and the interruptions of it to see people's reactions in the PTA meeting are quite funny, rather than annoying, which is the result of many films that interrupt the main story. Our young protagonist battles drug-dealers, meets Jesus and the devil (in the same place), dances with what seem to be half-naked hula girls, and much more, often doing such things through his hallucinations while influenced by the drug. Sexually weird, drug-referenced to the core, and at times sacrilegious, REEFER MADNESS: THE MUSICAL won't appeal to everyone, and certainly not to children. It is a fun film, however.