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Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, a review by Achim

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005/United States) (United States) Director: Andy Fickman Writing: Kevin Murphy (Screenwriter), Dan Studney (Screenwriter), Kevin Murphy (Original Material By), Dan Studney (Original Material By) Length: 108 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles:

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Stars:
Kristen Bell as Mary Lane
Christian Campbell as Jimmy Harper
Neve Campbell as Miss Poppy
Alan Cumming as Lecturer/Goat-Man/FDR
Ana Gasteyer as Mae Coleman

Plot:
Inspired by the legendary 1936 film of the same name, 'Reefer Madness' is a tongue-in-cheek raucous musical comedy about clean-cut kids who fall into a twisted, hilarious downward spiral of reefer, sex and mayhem! A straight-laced high school lecturer (Alan Cumming) seeks to impart his wisdom to frightened parents about the "demon weed" by telling the frightful tale of two innocent teens. Mary Lane (Kristen Bell) and Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell), who fall under the spell of the public's enemy #1 and quickly find themselves in a world of evil jazz music, dance and madness. Filled with outrageously funny and musical performances by Neve Campbell, Christian Campbell, Kristen Bell and Steven Weber, 'Reefer Madness' is the feel good event of the year that should not be missed!

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Feature Trailers
• Featurettes
• Gallery
• Production Notes
• Closed Captioned
• Original 1936 black & white film included

This is a bit of a strange movie. On the one hand, it's a fun musical with an over-the-top story and the acting that comes with that. But one can't really help but wonder "why are they doing this, why are they trying to tell me Marihuana is worse than heroin, even if they don't seem serious about it". Luckily this DVD comes with the original 1936 (the originally "educational" film Tell Your Children had been spiced up and exploited for its comedic effects) and a short featurette explaining some additional background. So, on the other hand it's somewhat of a remake with some musical numbers thrown in and turn the farcical elements way up where the 1936 version merely expanded on the existing footage.

It's a fun comedic musical with a few of the numbers going way beyond the source material (the scene where Mary smokes and is seduced and of course the scene in the church with Jesus). They added one element which I am a little torn over, which is the character Sally having a baby and neglecting it through her drug abuse; this may have been inspired by Trainspotting, in which the scene fit, here not really so much.

Rating:

(From Achim's entirely random reviews on July 24th, 2011)

The Hunting Party, a review by Silence_of_Lamb

Summary:
A young journalist (Jesse Eisenberg), a seasoned cameraman (Terrence Howard) and a discredited war correspondent (Richard Gere) embark on an unauthorized mission to find the no. 1 war criminal in Bosnia; they find themselves in serious jeopardy when they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad and their target decides to come after them.

My Thoughts:
I got this movie with my TV-magazine and have never heard anything about it before.

Which in fact is strange if you take into consideration it's gripping story and the terrific cast. After just about 10 minutes it became clear why this movie passed completely unnoticed by the masses: It's so cynical that it sometimes hurts.
Nevertheless (or probably: because of this), it's a great movie. The interaction between the three main-actors is absolute fun to watch, the guest appearance of Diane Kruger would have been worth an Oscar (if it wouldn't have been that short). The plot gets your full attention within the first two seconds and doesn't let you go until the end-credits. The photography is absolutely fabulous, the directing is so good that you actually don't notice it is there.
This movie has just about anything it needs to make a great movie an unforgettable movie, possibly even an all-time classic.
The most disturbing part is that this movie is based on a true story and was shot on the original places.

Highly recommended (especially if you want to know how it is possible that a 100.000 men seem completely unable to find a single man (may the name be Karadcic, Mladic, Bin Laden, ...))

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

(From Michael's random reviews on March 26th, 2011)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

2.07 Juliet is Bleeding (1996-02-01)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Kathy Slevin (Writer), Jeff King (Writer)
Director: George Bloomfield
Cast: Paul Gross (Constable Benton Fraser), David Marciano (Detective Ray Vecchio), Beau Starr (Lt. Harding Welsh), Daniel Kash (Detective Louis Gardino), Tony Craig (Detective Jack Huey), Catherine Bruhier (Elaine), Lee Purcell (Louise St. Laurent), Carrie-Anne Moss (Irene Zuko), Jim Bracchitta (Frank Zuko), Hannes Jaenicke (Michael), Sherry Miller (Commander Sherry O'Neil), Louis Di Bianco (Charlie), Pat Farenga (Pat), Falconer Abraham (Bomb Squad Leader), Joe Pingue (Jimmy Roastbeef), Harve Sokoloff (Zwick), Chelsi Smith (Wife #1), Shanna Moakler (Wife #2)

Too much tragedy at once for this series. I like that they , but it then got too much about Ray and his love of this life (of which we never heard anything about before if I remember correctly). Although Carrie-Anne Moss did a good job.
R.I.P. Riviera 2

Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on August 14th, 2009)