Recent Reviews for This Is Spinal Tap
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MCT:July 21, 2008Funny, but not as funny as the hype, this is also too short and low on plot and character development. It might have invented the mockumentary, but it isn't the best of the genre.
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MCT:July 15, 2008It's a pretty funny film! Esp when they show you how empty their audience is. The Stonehenge bit was the best.
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MCT:July 11, 2008
Lets rock the world of rock-n-roll...funny and full os messages about " popular" musicians, music and the industry.
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MCT:July 8, 2008
"Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful."
Rob Reiner's celebrated "rockumentary" This is Spinal Tap is an eccentric, innovative cinematic creation that justifiably generated its own individual genre. The film rapidly reached its cult classic status and is still held in extraordinarily high regard over 20 years since its initial release. It's fascinating to note that the filmmakers wanted people to believe the film was an authentic documentary on a real-life British band. The potency and realism easily allowed an audience to genuinely believe this desired objective. When this film was originally screened to a room of British press, those conducting the screening handed out biographical notes on the fictional band. These notes were complete with priceless intimate details to create an elevated authenticity. Seeing as much of the film's cast originated from US sitcoms, lacking any fame in the UK, it was distressingly unproblematic to accept the "rockumentary" (and Rob Reiner in his Scorsese beard as "filmmaker Marty DiBergi") as wholly legitimate. This film was even taken so seriously that those present started speculating about why they hadn't previously heard of the band that the film was exploring. However, the truth became extremely obvious when amiable old Patrick Macnee showed up in a cameo performance as a chairman of Polymer Records. Nevertheless, the press were extremely impressed with the made-up documentary of extraordinary brilliance they were watching.
This is Spinal Tap ostensibly exhibits itself as a genuine documentary. But due to its fictional central characters, it falls into an entirely different category: mockumentary/rockumentary. A filmmaker named Marty DiBergi (played by director Reiner) decides to visually document a tour through the eyes of the world's loudest rock band: Spinal Tap. Although people want you to believe it is real (everyone will go through that stage due to its realism), the movie is in reality a piercing satire and spoof of the entire rock 'n' roll scene, passing itself off as a real documentary of an existent band. Uproarious behind-the-scenes footage is combined with faux-concert clips that are provided to offer profound insight into the personal lives and loves of each band member. What makes the group seem so real is in the electrifyingly realistic performances from an enormous cast. Combine these performances with the cinema verté (i.e. hand-held camera) style of filmmaking, and the result is marvellous to behold.
This is Spinal Tap is not only funny but extremely cinematically innovative; borrowing elements from factual rock documentaries and spawning an original genre...an entirely unsullied method of telling recognisable stories. Rob Reiner, playing the fictitious filmmaker Marty DiBergi, is given a few minutes at the beginning of the film to introduce the documentary. During these few minutes he explains his motivations: an objective to portray the look, feel and smell of behind-the-scenes with a touring popular rock band. This goal has been fulfilled. Reiner cleverly satirises the situation, employing a high level of poignancy and realism without inflating the truth to hyperbolic proportions. Even with such capable realism in place, there are subtle laughs aplenty. Fans of the film continually laugh at the sheer stupidity exhibited by the characters. Their stupid motivations and philosophies are embarrassingly pathetic, not to mention song titles and even a short segment at the beginning when we hear hysterically funny (negative) reviews of previous albums released by the made-up band.
The film's nature became highly influential. Whenever a biopic is released there are elements that were obviously influenced by this classic rockumentary. Even movies such as Oliver Stone's The Doors explicitly pay homage. The band members themselves are introduced and interviewed one at a time. They are depicted backstage at a gig, in their hotel rooms, travelling in limos, signing autographs, etc. There is one thing that is permanently apparent: they are amongst the most clueless, oblivious people on planet Earth! As an example, one of the band's principal nuisances on tour is fathoming how to devour the hors d'oeuvres they're served at parties. To be expected, I mean how can one possibly get those enormous pieces of luncheon meat onto those little, minuscule pieces of bread? Understandably they commence panicking. They also find themselves hopelessly lost on their way to a stage and consequently wander around in an auditorium's basement for what seems like hours. It's amusing that the band, Spinal Tap, sound quite awful. It's obvious that they're supposed to sound awful, but part of the joke is that they don't sound overwhelmingly dissimilar or any poorer than a thousand other actual rock bands. One of the greatest aspects of This is Spinal Tap is in its portrayal of the cock-ups that continually unfold during a tour. The filmmakers insert such authenticity that it feels like the real deal, thus when some major stuff up occurs it's easy to laugh. For instance, at one stage the backstage crew struggle to release a band member from his plastic cocoon so he can play on stage...then when the song is over it finally pries open. It's this simply unparalleled charm that makes this film so distinctive and memorable.
Overall, This is Spinal Tap is rightfully regarded as an influential cult classic. You don't have to like heavy metal music in order to like the film. In fact, it probably helps not to like the music in order to appreciate the satire more. Although the charm and ingenuity runs thin towards the end (the trouble with essentially every comedy ever created), it's an extremely funny, creative and groundbreaking production that's certainly worth a look and a listen. This film subsists as the ultimate example of the rockumentary genre. Some will love it, some will hate it, but it cannot be denied that the film is a tremendously clever gem helmed by forever remarkable director Rob Reiner. -
MCT:June 24, 2008This is one of the best comedies that I have ever seen. Hilarious stuff. Plus the music is really good as well. One of the most quotable movies around and everyone in this did such an awesome job. It's a fantastic movie.
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MCT:June 20, 2008Only seen it once, think it's gonna need repeat viewings to be fully appreciated. "You're dressed like an Australian nightmare".
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MCT:June 14, 2008
I thought this band was real when I first saw the movie. i didn't know it was a spoof, comedy. great flick and funny as hell.
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MCT:June 14, 2008Hilarious, when it's meant to be and when the jokes aren't happeining (which is pretty much never) it is still a bloody good film.
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MCT:May 21, 2008
"Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not really widely reported. "
This hilarious rock/mockumentry is on the top of my list for this type of movie. Almost believable! -
MCT:May 21, 2008This was the most painful movie i have ever sat through (excluding all the olsen twin movies i was forced to sit through in school)
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MCT:May 17, 2008
I should put this in favourites. The lines, the cameos, the comedy... who can resisit? The classic line, 'It goes to 11.' comes from this flick.
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MCT:May 17, 2008
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.
A rockumentary for anyone that wants to get rocked. If you want to see a rock band, you better sit down and watch this. This is the truth, this is what happens, so you better sit back and listen up, because your balls will be skewered if you do not listen to what these guys have to say.
Nigel Tufnel: In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing...
This is a documentary about the legendary English rock band Spinal Tap. It ingeniously uses the talents of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer to portray a group that never became hugely popular, but they have continued to rock on anyway.
Director Rob Reiner serves as a documenter for the band during their latest tour. During this tour we see the band in action, their philosophies on life, the music they play, album plans, group quarrels, and interviews with them about past times, including the mysterious deaths surrounding all their previous drummers.
David St. Hubbins: Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not really widely reported.
This movie is very funny, mainly because of how dedicated to character these guys all are. The film also features a host of supporting actors in small cameo roles.
Its a great time to laugh with rock and roll.
[discussing Nigel's Guitar collection]
Nigel Tufnel: Look... still has the old tag on, never even played it.
Marty DiBergi: [points his finger] You've never played...?
Nigel Tufnel: Don't touch it!
Marty DiBergi: We'll I wasn't going to touch it, I was just pointing at it.
Nigel Tufnel: Well... don't point! It can't be played.
Marty DiBergi: Don't point, okay. Can I look at it?
Nigel Tufnel: No. no. That's it, you've seen enough of that one. -
MCT:April 17, 2008The first mockumentary is one of the funniest ever made. The journey of an airhead rock band gaining fame could never be portrayed more accurately. Its satire is so effective that aspiring guitarists either react in a humorous or in a 'sad-but-true' manner. ...I reacted positively, of course.
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MCT:April 7, 2008
wow this movie is funny. I love the humor of rock music and this is just brilliant. A true classic. I love the whole stone-hedge thing that's my ultimate fav part. Hehe.
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MCT:April 2, 2008
Kind of like Monte Python, this movie can be a bit better quoted than watched all the way through. Nonetheless, it crushes. Its realism-taken-to-absurdism makes this flick a very high form of parody.
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MCT:April 1, 2008
...And here's the best piss take of a rock bio pic ever!. Rob Reiner perfectly lampoons Martin Scorsese from The Last Waltz, following the group around trying to look cool and 'rock n roll'. This is just so good, the second disc of the dvd contains brilliant outtake footage which is just as hilarious as the film, can watch this time after time. Drive people nuts with quotes from it....
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MCT:March 31, 2008
One of the very best mockumentary films EVER (and no, thats not a spelling mistake) It is a comedy documentary spoof that's so realistic it had music fan friends of mine seething ast the time but they've since realised that it is a worthwhile watch - better on a big screen with a 5.1 surround sound setup.
Marti DiBergi (AKA Rob Reiner, a talented film maker in his own right) decides to profile a british rock bohemoth, and featuring timeless tunes and great humour - they recently reappeared at Live8 to great applause, proving they're still going strong... -
MCT:March 8, 2008
Very funny movie! I don't know what else to really say. Some moments were just brilliant! Yeah, I guess that about sums it up.
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MCT:March 6, 2008
Simply hilarious. One of the few movies that I can watch over and over again and still laugh at the comedy content. A real depiction of the glam, cock rock bands of the 70's and 80's.
The character's are great and instantly lovable, the humour is top notch, and the story flows perfectly. -
MCT:February 27, 2008
One of the amazing things about This Is Spinal Tap is how thoroughly it lambastes the hard rock/ metal scene of the '70s and '80s. There are clever jabs at most every icon of that era.
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MCT:February 23, 2008
Even as a huge fan of heavy metal, I can still appreciate much of the satire from Rob Reiner's mockumentary. This actually has some of the funniest moments ever, and I can laugh at them all without feeling too slighted.
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MCT:February 22, 2008My brother Father and I went to go see this when it came out in theaters about 40 minutes after it started we walked out. We instead saw Children of the corn. Spinal Tap wasn't a good movie then and it is not a good movie now.
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MCT:February 17, 2008
wow imn going all the way 2 11....this is a brilliant movie... this was just superb...i really love this movie...i think that its ace brilliant amazing its has loads of really funny parts throughout the movie evey1 plays a really great part throguhout its just a whole load of funn throughout the movie....rob reiner was on superb form throughout by directing this movie its just an exellent movie that i really enjoyed throughout
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MCT:February 3, 2008
Pending Review...
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MCT:January 24, 2008I apologize for this, but I never got the full fun of this movie. The only part I really liked was when they were getting lost on the way to the stage and kept cheering as they felt they were getting closer.
