Rating: 
Summary: What's left to be said?
Review: "The dial goes up to 11!" Marti Di Bergi's seminal spoof rockumentary has been seen so much and quoted so often its impact has been lessened more than a little. But it's worth remembering just how important, and more importantly how funny, it really was. The complaints about the comparative sizes of salami and bread, the dimensions of an on-stage Stonehenge and the involvement of Christopher Guest's girlfriend in the break up of the band are brilliant moments in the progress of the band and its promotional tour of their new album, Smell the Glove under the eye of their record company boss, Sir Denis Eton-Hogg, played by Patrick Macnee. Music stars are still just as flamboyantly idiotic these days and Spinal Tap remains just as relevant as it was in 1984 when it was released and the film remains the model for every spoof reality project since.
Rating:
Summary: BUY THIS NOW
Review: this would have to be the funniest movie of all time in my opionion. It is incredibly entertaining. BUY THIS NOW!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Start of RockMockumania
Review: Reiner, Guest and cast team up for this takeoff on bands coming across the pond, bringing along not only talent but barrel of problems as well.From the band manager to girlfriends and inter-personal strife between band members, this is funny for the 60-70's group. McKean is just outstanding in this one. Williard is not the strong character of the followons, but equally good here. Too bad Levy isn't here, maybe as crazed drummer?
Rating:
Summary: It's a fine line between stupid and clever
Review: Spinal Tap. Not your everyday mulleted metal-rockers -- oh no, they're the loudest. 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. 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 Tufnell (Christopher Guest), Derek Smalls (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!") with a naked woman being force to smell a black glove. 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? To make things even better, rock in-jokes are sprinkled liberally through the movie. There are homages to Black Sabbath (the teeny Stonehenge), Eric Clapton (Nigel's name), 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). The humor is deliciously barbed, but not cruelly. In one of the best DVD releases I've yet seen, "This is Spinal Tap"'s special edition includes not only massive amounts of cut footage, all of which is quite good (many "uncut" movies are just bloated) although certainly not absolutely necessary. The commentary is even funnier, where the actors speak as if they were their characters, watching a REAL rockumentary. The humor is all the funnier because it's delivered in a deadpan manner, like when Nigel shows off the amplifier that goes to 11, or when a desperate roadie tries to break Derek out of the plastic pod he's trapped in. (Not to mention the cucumber incident) The driver obsessed with Frank Sinatra is a nice touch, an example of those who claimed rock was just a fad. And of course, the original album that will haunt Metallica forever-- the Black Album, completely dark. (It's a close-up of the glove!) And the music actually surpasses that which inspires it. Pretty much all of the songs are musically sound. If you can get past the wonderfully stupid lyrics (and Nigel's druid monologue) without laughing, you're much tougher than I am. Not to mention gems like "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?"). "This is Spinal Tap" with leave you with many deep questions like "why can't you dust for vomit?" Just kidding. But it will leave you laughing and grinning as you listen to Nigel and David deconstructing racism and loving your brother. It doesn't get much better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Love the movie, love the DVD
Review: Maybe it's my weakness for silly humor, but "This is Spinal Tap" is easily in my top 5 list of comedies -- and this DVD really completes the whole "Tap" experience. The in-character commentary alone is worth the price of the DVD. I'll spare the reader the easy jokes about "it goes to 11" and the "fine line between clever and stupid" and just recommend this DVD very highly for anyone who needs a guaranteed-to-make-you-laugh comedy.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: I've seen that a lot of people really enjoyed this movie. Some really hated it. I noticed, oddly, that most of the people who hated it simply said it was "not funny" and didn't bother to elaborate. They expect influence so many people with just a couple sentences? One reviewer in particular actually submitted an extra review, just to diss people who liked the movie. Real mature. You're entitled to you opinion, but at least try to be dignified about it. I myself think Spinal Tap is genius. It's a satire of the rock'n'roll industry in the 1980's, an era in which headbanging metal and hair bands were very popular. It was the era of Ozzy Osbourne's first years in a solo career, Randy Rhoads, Twisted Sister, Metallica, and as time went on more bands and artist would join the list such as the now legendary premier lead gutiarist of heavy metal Zakk Wylde. All of this had certain unifying themes that Rob Reiner manages to touch upon. To quote Michael McKean's character, "There's such a fine line between clever and stupid." In the '80s this was particularly true. Heavy metal bands churning out songs with no meaning or talented musicianship behind them, and huge hits from bands who worked hard to create them like Scorpions and Rush. Spinal Tap was a look at the comically stupid side of rock'n'roll. All the band members were idiots on and off-stage. They were pretentious, arrogant, and irritable when things didn't go their way. This is the way so many rockers go. There were also a lot of little scenes that touched on other topics. Nigel's cacophonous guitar solo where he played a distortion-drenched Flying V, kicked the strings on an SG sitting by, then played the V by bowing it with a violin was a parody of the distorted, screaming solos heavy metal bands became so famous for. Sadly, a lot of this humor seems lost on some people, as you'll see in some of the negative reviews. Derek didn't place the cucumber in his pants to make people think he had a huge package. He was just messing with the guards' heads. Do you want to tell someone in an airport to take their pants off? Another thing I thought was funny was that a lot of the songs created for the movie actually turned out to be better than works by the very bands that Rob Reiner was trying to parody. My particular favorites were Rock'n'Roll Creation and Stonehenge. Hell, I'm learning guitar myself and I'm trying to track down the tablature for those two. The humor may seem a little dated, but for those of you can think from the perspective of the time period this is set in, it's very well-done. It helps to watch it a couple times. It helps absorb all the humor and see to the point of several jokes you might have missed the first time.
Rating:
Summary: Even the DVD Menu is Funny!
Review: You heard me. The DVD menu is funny. As soon as you pop this disc in and get to the menu, you hear David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), comment about the options on the menu, and how black the screen is before the menu shows up. I think it's more of a pastel black myself. This infamous mockumentary details the life of the band, "Spinal Tap", and its members as they tour the USA. Many things happen to them that are very true to real rock bands, such as getting lost backstage, getting the wrong sized props for an onstage show, and having props not work right. And of course, hilarity ensues. This mockumentary also reveals some of the history of Spinal Tap, such as the fact that every drummer who has ever been in the band has died under mysterious circumstances, such as Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs, who choked on vomit(but we don't know whose). In addition to this, we also see some of their early songs, complete with video. "The Flower People" is a song they did in the 60s, it looks like a cross between The Beatles and John Denver, and I could not stop laughing through the video. What surprises me most about this movie, though, is that the music is actually good! And further more, it's actually played by Spinal Tap! This edition of the DVD also includes over an hour of deleted scenes, four music videos (actual music videos, not just the scenes from the movie), commercials, and a few other extras that fit in great with a mockumentary. Whether it is because the band members try to explain things the right way, or because of the paralells between real rock bands, or because the band members are talking about the spanish subtitles option in the subtitles menu, you will be laughing almost nonstop! It is rare that you will find a movie that will always be funny, and this is one of those rarities!
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Summary: No English subtitles!
Review: The movie itself deserves five stars and the special features are just gravy, but I want to understand EVERY WORD, and when everybody's mumbling at the same time I need help!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best comedies ever
Review: Documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) chronicles the final US tour of the unappreciated heavy metal band Spinal Tap (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer). This hilarious parody of the rock scene was so good that it spawned an entire sub-genre of mock documentaries (although now I seem to recall Eric Idle in a film about a fictional group "of no fixed hairstyle" called the Rutles back in the 70s). Fans of 70s and 80s metal will catch many references that will slip by others. The real miracle of this film is that it skewers its target so mercilessly, and yet avoids becoming cruel. The enthusiasm of the Tap members for being rock stars is so pure and joyful, even after many years and despite the reality of their crumbling tour, that we can't help but wish them well.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastically hilarious, one of the funniest films ever.
Review: When first delving into the world of heavy metal, my friend Matt (a.k.a. tkdmateo) informed me of this film, a funny "rockumentary" about a fictitious group called Spinal Tap. The key members in this were guitarist/vocalist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), guitarist/vocalist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), keyboardist Tommy Pischedda (Bruno Kirby), and a slew of over 30 drummers in the course of their career. This is one of those films where it's hilarious and sadly true simultaneously. Stuff like this actually happens in the music industry; it may be overexaggerated, but it's all too true. The drummers that keep "spontaneously combusting" or "choking on vomit" (or whatever else initiated their demise) is a homage and a parody of the legendary metal band Judas Priest, who kept switching drummers album after album (until 1980's British Steel). Rob Reiner, acclaimed director of "Stand By Me" and "A Few Good Men," also co-wrote the script (or improvisations, as most of the film was) with Shearer, Guest, and McKean, and he also "hosts" the film as Marty DiBergi. He keeps the film satirical and hilarious, while also keeping the characters straight-forward and serious without making it campy. The music is performed by all the actors, believe it or not, and the songs are often well-constructed and catchy, while also sporting some hilarious lyrics. Songs including "Big Bottom" and "Hell Hole" are both praising and mocking rock, and some other songs like "The Flower People" exploit the time periods in which rock existed in a different mindset. It's all played very well, and it features a few actors that come in as surprising cameos including Ed Begley, Jr., Patrick Macnee, Howard Hessman, and Billy Crystal (who happens to be a good friend of Mr. Reiner), among many others. A revolutionary film, both for those who love rock n' roll and of improvisational comedy. Even if you don't like it (for whatever reason, you are wrong), it's still a movie that MUST be seen because it is indeed a cinematic marvel. Besides, how can you NOT laugh at hilarious scenes like the amplifier that goes to 11, or the album being rechanged to become the "black album," in which no photos or text at all (perhaps Metallica was influenced by this film?)? This scene was in fact influenced by the Beatles' "White Album." In addition to these scenes you get the manager's "punishment paddle" (or whatever it's called) and the debacle regarding the song "Stonehenge." Extremely funny scenes! As for the DVD release, it contains sweet features like the theatrical trailer, interviews, and TONS of deleted scenes that are almost as long as the film itself! This, my friends, is a classic masterpiece that fits in perfectly, whatever your collection is.
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