Reefer Madness the Musical [MA]

"Tell your children!" We all know that marijuana is bad, but in this musical remake of the 1950s film Reefer Madness we get to see just how bad.

What in the name of all that is holy was this? I'm still shuddering. This has to be one of the strangest and most disturbing movie musicals ever made!

Parents in a small town are shown a film about the effects of reefer and how it will destroy their children. The films focuses on the story of young Jimmy. 16 years old and very much in love, Jimmy falls in with reefer-affected headcases crowd and his life takes a dangerous and hellish turn.

The film started out like a deliberately camp and over-acted movie, you know, the type filled with 50s kids always using their hands in big ways and saying the word "swell" over and over. But as we get further and further into the film, it goes from being harmlessly camp to just plain creepy. I was kind of starting to enjoy it early on, with its catchy songs and its over-acted characters, you know, taking the piss, it's harmless and funny. But then it went to really exaggerated effects of reefer, stuff like cannibalism, murder and zombies, and that's when I just went "nup."

Admittedly the only reason I hired this movie was because it looked kind of funny and had Alan Cumming in it, I like Alan Cumming. He was actually quite good in this, playing a whole lot of different characters. Kristen Bell was good too. Really there's not very many ways you can play a goodie-two-shoes 50s girl with curly hair and pink sweaters. So I'll say she was cute.

The songs were quite catchy and some of them were kind of clever, I particularly like the song Jesus sang: "trust the man with stigmata."

Here's my final note on Reefer Madness the Musical: it's only redeeming feature was Alan Cumming and Kristen Bell singing catchy songs about Romeo and Juliet, empty church seats, marijuana, and murder. A silly musical film that turns just plain scary halfway through, Reefer Madness the Musical is a film that I could have gone my life without seeing.