This Is Spinal Tap [1984]

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-20 rating:
exploiting the vulnerable
A friend's exhortations to watch this "hilarious" rock-romp led me to the DVD player one wet and windy wednesday. My expectations were admittedly sky high as the same person had been the source of many other mirth packed evenings. However, the promised chuckles ( how I prayed for them to appear) did not emerge. I found it dated and over-rated, with most of what paltry humour there was relying on jokes about sex, airport metal detectors and misunderstandings between the thinly sketched "main" characters.In order for me to laugh I need to feel empathy for the main characters in a film. The central actors in this film, however, elicited none. They appeared to be very slow on the uptake and elicited sympathy and even contempt-the enemies of humour.There was also a cruel streak of "mocking the afflicted" running through this offering and the whole production just confirmed my long held belief that documentaries can never be funny and just succeed in exploiting vulnerable people.

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review by: date: 2008-11-12 rating:
Spinal reflex?
Thiis has been hailed as the funniest film ever, but I'm afraid that is way off the mark. You need to be interested in heavy metal / glam rock to understand this. It is not side splittingly funny, but at times it is very clever. Overall I like this film but one has to wait rather too long for the classic lines to make it a favourite. This one doesn't go to 11...

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review by: bigdave2020 date: 2008-09-05 rating:
Sex and drugs and mock and roll...
Did Elton John watch this before making Tantrums and Tiaras? Did Madonna see it before making 'In Bed with Madonna'? Have Metallica watched this before releasing `Metallica' (the black album)? Did U2 see this before visiting Graceland in Rattle and Hum? Have Velvet Revolver watched it before forming a band?

The humour throughout Spinal Tap is dry and observed rather than slapstick in your face and that is fine by me. Hissy fits about food, on stage pompous prop failure, the tuning of a violin used during a guitar solo, radio interference on stage, the constant replacement of drummers, getting lost on the way to the stage, the revival of the career in Japan, amplifiers that go to eleven, all the jokes and clichés are there, in fact I think this film may have invented a few.

In much the same way that the British TV series `Drop the Dead donkey' character Damien Day successfully lampooned cliché overly self important `on the spot' news reporters, to the point where I struggle to take these `news hounds' seriously, I find it hard to take most TV `Rockumentary' programmes seriously as a result of Spinal Tap. Musicians and producers talking to camera about their `work' just isn't the same.

Both influenced and influencing Spinal Tap is a work of comedy genius. Not many films have dialogue that enter the language, the phrase `its all a bit spinal tap' I have heard used in the media on countless occasions, and will be for years to come. There is little funnier in film or television when life imitates art, and art then imitates life to this degree. If we can see it, why can't they? All you need to enjoy this is a sense of humour.

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review by: x-e-r-o date: 2008-05-07 rating:
but...
they REALLY played their instruments......brilliant as a movie. positively hysterical if you are a musician.


review by: ea_solinas date: 2008-02-17 rating:
It's a fine line between stupid and clever,
Spinal Tap. Not your everyday mulleted metal-rockers -- oh no, they're the loudest band in the world.

Or so says Marti DiBergi (played with a straight face by director Rob Reiner), in a hysterical "rockumentary" that focuses on the dumber side of rock'n'roll. "This is Spinal Tap" has become the quintessential rock'n'roll movie -- full of strangely lifelike jokes, gigantic hair, annoying girlfriends, hilarious acting, and a many an exploding drummer from time to time.

Spinal Tap, the loudest band in Britain, is returning to the US for the first time in years to promote their new album, "Smell The Glove." Trailing behind them is DiBergi, capturing every strange moment on film and interviewing the solemnly strange trio that makes up the core, Nigel (Christopher Guest), Derek (Harry Shearer), and David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean). Their many drummers have died in a series of bizarre freak accidents (including the vague "gardening accident"), choking on someone else's vomit, and spontaneous combustion).

Charting the history of the band (including psychedelic rock) to the present, DiBergi chronicles the controversy that springs up around "Smell the Glove"'s sexist cover ("What's wrong with being sexy?" "Sex-IST!"). After bizarre mishaps (a Stonehenge set the size of a cat), waning popularity and falling sales, the manager quits in anger and Nigel walks out. Is it the end of Spinal Tap?

One of the funniest ways make something funny is to stay really, really close to reality -- and that is where "This is Spinal Tap" strikes gold. It sticks JUST close enough to be semi-accurate, but remains just on the outside line of comedy -- basically, if you like laughtracks, gross-out humour and pratfalls, this isn't your kind of movie.

The humor is all the funnier because it's delivered in a deadpan manner: Nigel's amp that "goes to 11," the cucumber incident, or when Derek gets trapped in a plastic pod, and has to be freed via a desperate roadie with a blowtowtorch. And sprinkled in between are little interviews between DiBergi and the band, littered with hilarious quotables ("It's like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water").

In fact, Reiner manages to craft a very believable rock'n'roll world, complete with label controversies, Sinatra-loving chauffeurs, groupies and frequent technical malfunctions. And the music... hoo boy, just try not to laugh at "Gimme Some Money," "Sex Farm," "Listen To The Flower People," and the sidesplitting "Big Bottom" ("Big bottoms drive me out of my mind/how could I leave that behind?"). Not to mention Nigel's ghastly Druid monologue.

And rock in-jokes are sprinkled liberally through the movie. There are homages to Black Sabbath (the teeny Stonehenge), Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin (playing a guitar with a violin), and countless other little jokes. Even Jeanine is based on famed rock girlfriends like Yoko Ono and Anita Pallenberg.

As for the actors... well, reportedly they made up a lot of their dialogue on the wing, which might explain why they are so unspeakably funny. You'd almost think they were real -- in fact, a few uninformed people have.

Guest and McKean form the core of the story, as the lovably clueless Nigel ("It's one louder") and the savvier, too-influenced-by-his-girlfriend David. These guys really rule the screen with their rambling dialogue and gigantic hair. The hairy Harry Shearer is less front-and-center, but both he's pretty funny too -- as is Reiner, who somehow manages to keep a straight face through it all.

"This is Spinal Tap" is the ultimate rock movie -- a funny, deadpan, wittily mocking little look at the world's loudest band. A treasure.

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Comedy . All Comedy
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . BBFC Rating (intended_use_browse-bin) . 15
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 2
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1980 - 1989

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