Rating: 
Summary: Great! Great! Great!...
Review: What can you say? I don't think this film needs an introduction! This DVD version is recommended for the audio commentary by the group ("Nig......are you playing pocket"bowl"? "That is Viv's "pas..porrrt" photo"! "Did Viv ever know that his microphone was never turned on"? "Marty has a fake beard"! David: "Nig...its too bad you and Janine never got along". Nig: "We did.......for about 10 minutes once"! David: "She said it was more like six minutes"! ect.ect.) and the other features as well. A must for all who enjoyed this for the last 22 years!
Rating:
Summary: THIS IS SPINAL TAP
Review: This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) includes the best sound quality and picture quality ever. This movie is one of the funniest on my list. I also love the bonus features when they show outtakes or follow ups on the movie. This is without the funniest rock n roll band ever. This will be a classic so why wait go add this to your collection. For the best price buy this on amazon and Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: This is One of the Funniest Films of All Time!
Review: One of the funniest films of all time, and certainly one of the cleverest, "This is Spinal Tap" is as equally hysterical and subtle today as it was twenty years ago, back when Rob Reiner was pretty much known for his iconic role on the television show "All in the Family" -- not yet for "The Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally...", "A Few Good Men," and certainly not for being an excellent director. (Now, by 2004, his films have occupied many of the various AFI lists, including the best romance films and comedies.)"This is Spinal Tap" was the first of its kind -- a so-called "rockumentary" following the dissipation of a terrible British hard rock band during the mid-80s, with songs like "Sex Farm" ample proof of their considerably awful talent. Tons of bands like Spinal Tap were popular during the 1980s, then soon fell out of the public eye. Not many of them even had much talent at all -- just drugged-out band members and lots of rebellious attitudes as their primary advertising campaign. Because Spinal Tap is so close to reality, and because it is so ridiculously ironic and yet far-fetched, it has achieved a massive army of fans and even a famed Criterion Collection DVD (now out of print, unfortunately). The film was never exactly a smash at the box office, but its popularity -- like so many famous films -- grew rapidly over the years since its release, having gradual re-releases (the sure-fire sign of a cult film) and lots of fake reunion concerts. (One of which was recently released onto a DVD.) Legend has it that after the film was released in 1984, people often came up to Rob Reiner on the street and they would say, "I really liked your movie, but I wish you would have chosen a more popular band to do a film on." Yes, Spinal Tap is absolutely false. It's not a real band. But it's hard to tell at times. Some people don't like the film because they find it too real -- but I think that's the whole idea. As the film fades into focus, we are introduced to Marty DiBergi (Reiner), a documentary film maker who was drawn to Spinal Tap, the UK heavy metal rock band, early on in their career -- he admired their "loud" songs and now, at the height of their career, he is setting out to record their private lives that exist behind the stage. The three main rockers are Nigel (Christopher Guest), David (Michael McKean), and Derek (Harry Shearer), who go around the world on rock tours, inspiring lots of loud noise amongst fans and upsetting a lot of people -- like the limo driver played by Bruno Kirby ("The Godfather Part II") in a pre-"When Harry Met Sally" cameo. (Billy Crystal also makes a cameo as a mime waiter in one of the most subtle scenes -- look quick, you might miss him.) The cast performed all their own songs, as well as writing them. Guest, McKean and Shearer are all gifted musicians -- but they're also pretty funny. Part of what makes this film so effective on repeat viewings is that you're guaranteed to find some things you didn't notice last time. John Hughes once said that he liked to place small background quirks in his films (such as the crawling mice in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles") so that, on repeat viewings on television, someone watching might drift from the main focus of the film to the background of the sequence -- and there's the hidden gag that isn't even all that funny, just...different. Your first viewing of "Spinal Tap" might be less than enthusastic. But I beg of you, watch it again, take a chance to open your ears more, pay attention to small things in the background, and listen to those songs the guys are singing. That's where much of the comedy lies. This is a film that is definitely worth owning for such purposes. Speaking of hidden elements, much has been said -- or rather implied -- about the homosexuality of Nigel. When David's girlfriend joins them for the tour, his heart sinks because he loves him. I dunno, I've always thought it was because they were childhood friends and Nigel doesn't want anyone to take David away from him for friendship reasons. (Although the line "We're closer than brothers..." makes you wonder.) This mockumentary formula has been re-created time and time again since "This is Spinal Tap," even in films such as "The Blair Witch Project." But the mockumentary style has been mimicked particularly by Guest, who starred in -- and directed -- "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show," and most recently, 2003's "A Mighty Wind." Michael McKean and Harry Shearer returned for these entries, and I'm thinking that the next film should be a collaborative effort, and should reunite everyone from "Spinal Tap" for a 20-year anniversary -- Reiner, Guest, McKean, Shearer, the cast from Guest's mockumentaries, and perhaps even Crystal and Kirby, et al., in cameos. I'm sure more than a few people would go to see it. And, unlike so many other films, it is one that actually deserves a sequel. And probably one that would be just as funny as the first. And one that would have a purpose, other than being just another cash-in. Anyone interested in what happened to the band members twenty years after their downfall? I know I do. But this is getting off the point, and the point is that none of these Guest mockumentaries -- as good as they are -- come close to the pure greatness of "This is Spinal Tap," and "A Mighty Wind" -- although funny -- started to show signs of formula aging. But "This is Spinal Tap" was, is, and always shall be, the granddaddy of the mockumentaries. It's the "Psycho" of mockumentaries, and actually a lot of "regular" comedies, too.
Rating:
Summary: "We are Spinal Tap of the UK! You must be the USA!!"
Review: I know this sounds trite, but this DVD truly goes to eleven... Ever since the Beatles came to America almost 40 years ago, pop culture has been fascinated with English rockers. So in the early 1980's, when spandex and makeup were coming into play in the Brit rock world, it seemed only natural to make a mock-rockumentary; it was "THIS IS SPINAL TAP". And boy, what a hoot it is. To this day, almost 20 years later, this movie is still very enjoyable, with its satire, silliness, and, actually, realism. Yes, many rock musicians have noted how realistic the movie is. Many of them admitted it on "I Love The '80s". As for the movie's humour, it's not for everyone. (See some of the one-star reviews written by rocket scientists who think Spinal Tap was a real band.) It's kinda dry. But if you get it (like I do), then it's hysterical. Take, for instance, the following: Nigel showing Marty DeBergi his guitars/amps.
Marty reading off some negative reviews for Spinal Tap albums.
The band taking the stage in Cleveland.
The infamous Stonehedge moment. Priceless. This is actually brilliant humour; something that not every Chris, Mike, and Harry could pull off. (Get it?) As for the music itself: Spinal Tap may have been a fictional band, but they might as well have been real. After all, the entire soundtrack was written/recorded by the actual actors. (That's right, that's really Chris Guest doing that solo.) ROCK AND ROLL! So if you like rock & roll and laughter, check out this DVD. (Lots of cool bonus features too!) It may take a couple of watches for the humour to sink in, but trust me, it will. Now I'll close this review with a quote from Megadeth's Dave Mustaine: "You know a tour's going bad when you start getting flashes in your head of Spinal Tap!"
Rating:
Summary: A Review Haiku by Todd Marrone
Review: THE definitive
humor mock-umentary,
a strong cult classic!
Rating:
Summary: This one goes up to eleven...
Review: Christopher Guest is probably the most brilliant comedy director living, and *This Is Spinal Tap* is one of the the most perfect examples of dead-pan humor around. Some of the laughs are subtle (the obnoxious limo driver, the controlling girl friend, the dim-witted bass guitarist played by Guest himself) and some are howling out loud raucous. Anyone who isn't in stitches by the "Stonehenge" sequence probably needs to have his or her pulse checked to make sure death hasn't intervened. Perhaps they've spontaneously combusted or choked on vomit...
Rating: 
Summary: "Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year."
Review: Rob Reiner's "This Is Spinal Tap" is a cult film that truly does contain many moments of manic inspiration. However, its premise outshines its execution. While its fictional documentary format is novel, the film itself is only partially successful. There are several sequences that make you chuckle but precious few sequences that produce any laugh-out-loud moments. In the end, "This is Spinal Tap" is a form over substance film. Filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) makes the band Spinal Tap the subject of a documentary. The band is on their first American tour in six years and counts among its members David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell). Nothing really goes as planned on the tour as fans don't turn up for an autograph session, their album "Smell the Glove" has trouble making it into stores, difficulties arise in the design of a stage prop, and a concert stop is scheduled for a military hanger. Yet with all this chaos erupting around them, the band members remain oblivious to their plight. "This Is Spinal Tap" is a film that becomes more and more strained as it goes on. The fictional documentary joke starts to wear thin after the first initial chuckles. The acting is great and the cameos by Fran Drescher, Paul Shaffer, Anjelica Huston, and Fred Willard are amusing but there is little energy to help sustain the film for its 82-minute running time. "This Is Spinal Tap" is not funny enough to be a successful comedy and not clever enough to be a successful satire. The film is merely adequate and, unlike the band itself which is saved at the end by their Japanese fans, is never salvaged before it concludes.
Rating:
Summary: This movie is awesome
Review: This is the first movie that showed to me that Christopher Guest-- and all of his players-- are great. This movie could be watched a gazillion times and still be funny. It's one of only a few DVDs in my collection, and it's one of my most prized.
Rating:
Summary: without a doubt, the finest comedy ever...
Review: and also the funniest. plus they sound better than most of the coq-rock bands of the '80s.
Rating: 
Summary: Cult classic
Review: This is probably not as funny as it once was, unfortunately, at least to a younger generation. And frankly, considering all that has come to past in rock and roll, it seems a little tame, even a little on the lame side in places. Or perhaps I have grown too jaded. Since Rob Reiner dreamed up this "pseudo-rockumentary" (after affixing some gold paint strategically on the USS Coral Seas baseball cap he wears--one of the many sight gags in the movie) the satirical assault on rock culture as been done and done again, perhaps a time or two too many. The music itself is, shall we say, derivative with the Stones, some early Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and others having some distant unavoidable influence, while the unwashed antics of the stars both on stage and off have become cliches of the biz. Worse yet, satirizing the documentary mode itself has been done to death. Alas, can we have back those moments of splendor in the grass (Wordsworth) or when we first leaned back in the movie theater, the smell of rancid popcorn butter in our nose, and sticky soda corn syrup on the soles of our shoes, and got blasted away by Spinal Tap? No, Virginia, you can't go home again, sad to say. Might as well jump (Van Halen, 1984).
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