Cinematic Disasters - Reefer Madness

I know I said this segment was all about reviewing bad movies that no one loves but after watching Movie 43 and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace with nothing but hated I decided to review a movie that people do like. Even thought we all know it's bad but bad in the right way.

Reefer Madness is a 1936 propaganda film. It was originally produced by George Hirliman for the film's 1936 release then produced by Dwain Esper for the 1938/1939 release and distributed by Motion Pictures Ventures. The movie was written by Arthur Hoerl and directed by Louis J. Gasnier.

The story is high school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll retells a story about the dangers of marijuana to an audience of parents. His story is about a boy named Jimmy and how his life spiraled out of control when it decided to smoke the evil drug.

Now typical my reviews have bullet points that explain the negatives, mix, and positives to a film but I'm going to do something different. I'm going to give you my thoughts on specific plot points and things I found funny and I also want to tell you about the film's legacy.

My Thoughts

If you pay attention closely somehow Dr. Carroll knows every detail to each and every character & event. He knows what they did a specific day, he knows where and when the smoked pot, he even knows when a character got dressed but how does he know all of this? We're never given a scene or scenes where the teens or drug dealers tell him these things. Some details are obvious but other than that how does he know when certain details happened?


I think Reefer Madness actually helped drug dealers. I say that because Dr. Carroll brings up methods anybody could use to sneak marijuana or other type of illegal drugs into a country or school.

Now let's talk about the teenagers of this movie. These characters are the most squeaky clean and purest teens I have ever seen in a movie. This people do all the right things. They do there homework with no procrastination or excuses, they come home on time, and they don't even drink soda. I question this because no way someone is this innocent especially in the age group their in.

The movie sure does like to use the word swell a lot. I mean almost everybody says swell. You can make a whole montage of the characters using that word.

Some of the dialogue here is just hilarious. There's one scene where Jimmy and his friends go to a diner and he orders drinks for them but he says this. Jimmy - Two sodas. No, I mean one soda and one root beer. Soda and root beer are the same thing!


This piano scene. Just watch it you will be amazed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKID2LRzIdY

There is no way pot makes you go that fast. Those two are clearly on something else.



The filmmakers definitely don't know what happens to you when you smoke weed because here is a list of side effects from the movie.


- Commit a hit and run accident
- Manslaughter
- Suicide
- Attempted rape
- Hallucinations

and

- Decent into insanity


I don't know everything about weed nor have I ever smoked any but I do know it causes hallucinations but I pretty sure your not going to kill someone or try to commit rape.





Legacy


I'm very surprised the movie has as much of legacy as it does. Not only is it a cult classic but some see the film as a perfect example of a midnight movie. During the early 1970's the movie was "rediscovered" and gained even more fans. People now see as a unintentional satire among advocates of cannabis policy reform. The one of the posters for Reefer Madness can also be seen in other films such as Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, Happy Hour, How High, and Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. The movie has also made appearances in films like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Grass, and I Am Divine. Even TV shows bring up the film. A clip of it can be seen in Adam Ruins Everything, That 70's Show spoofed it and TCM Underground dedicated an episode to talk about it and of course it was made fun of by RiffTrax. The movie even got stage adaptions. One was made in Chicago back in 1992 by Sean Abley and the other one spoofed the film. That play ran from 1998 to 2013. Then that same play was later remade in 2005 for a made for TV movie that stars actors such as Alan Cummings and Kristen Bell.





Reefer Madness has characters that are too innocent, bland, or over the top, the filmmakers had no idea what the side effects of cannabis are, and the film tries way to hard to convince us that marijuana is a bad thing even thought their information is completely inaccurate. However that what makes the movie great. Yes drugs are in no way a good thing but the lengths that some will go to tell you can be funny and this film goes to huge lengths to tell us that marijuana is an awful product.



My final rating for this movie is So Bad It's Good




That was a fun Cinematic Disaster review. I will occasional do more films that are so bad they're good but for now let's go back to films we hate. Because my next review for Cinematic Disasters will be an animated feature. That flick will be 2012's Foodfight.




State of The Project (Jun 12th - Jul 10th)


Jun 12th - Road to Justice League - Justice League: War Review


Jun 15th - Differences Between Jurassic Park (movie) and Jurassic Park (novel)


Jun 19th - Road to Spider-Man: Homecoming - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review


Jun 22nd - Jun 30th - Taking a Break


Jul 3rd - Cinematic Disasters - Reefer Madness


Jul 6th - Raiders of the Lost Media - Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro (Pre - 9/11)


Jul 8th - Spider-Man: Homecoming Review


Jul 10th - Spider-Man: Homecoming Easter Eggs




NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU.