Eric Stevenson
On TVTropes, I constantly heard the phrase "Up To Eleven" being used. I even frequently used it myself when editing the website, even though I had never seen the movie. The funny thing is that even in the movie itself they make fun of this. It features the interviewer wondering why they don't just make ten louder. I didn't even recognize Harry Shearer in this. He's such a talented entertainer I have to acknowledge him.The funniest line is probably when they mention choking on vomit, but not his own vomit. The biggest appeal to this movie is probably how realistic it is. Spinal Tap isn't a real band, but they certainly seem like one here. With all the controversy and crazy things going on bands, it's great to have a piece of satire like this. Everyone acts like they are in a real documentary and while not as good as "Borat", still a significant film. I'll ignore "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn!" over this. ***1/2
Uriah43
This film is essentially about a so-called heavy metal group named "Spinal Tap" who have found that their customer base has been shrinking and have therefore launched a come-back tour to recapture their lost glory—as if they ever had any to begin with. Be that as it may, even though their new manager named "Ian Faith" (Tony Hendra) tries his best to set things up for their United States tour it soon becomes quite obvious that he is totally incompetent for the job at hand. Also quite evident is the fact that the band members are equally clueless about why their music doesn't attract large audiences. So they continue to produce one idiotic song after the other and devise all kinds of failed stage gimmicks in the mistaken belief that they are somehow on the verge of a major breakthrough. When these don't work the manager quits and is replaced by the lead singer's girlfriend "Jeanine Pettibone" (June Chadwick) who is even more incompetent than Ian ever was. Not surprisingly, things get even worse at that point. In any case, while this turned out to be a decent comedy for the most part, I should also mention that it probably takes some getting used to. Because of that, some viewers may not like it that much and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
BA_Harrison
A 'mockumentary' that affectionately spoofs the heavy rock genre, This Is Spinal Tap follows the titular group on a disastrous US tour to coincide with the release of Smell The Glove, their first album in six years.Director Rob Reiner's film is a firm favourite amongst metal-heads, despite mocking the music scene they love so much. This is because metal fans, myself included (a proud headbanger since the mid '80s), can acknowledge the often over-the-top theatricality and absurdity of their chosen genre, and have the intelligence to laugh along with it.And Spinal Tap is full of laughs: from Nigel the lead guitarist (Christopher Guest) proudly stating that his amp goes up to eleven, to the miniature stonehenge stage prop, to the band playing second on the bill after a puppet show, the film is full of great gags, with much of the dialogue being improvised to add to the authenticity of the documentary format.And to make things even better, the music is very good too: I have the Spinal Tap album on vinyl and it is packed with great tunes, from the early '60s songs 'Cups and Cakes' and 'Gimme Some Money', to their hippy hit '(Listen to The) Flower People', through to their heavy rock anthems 'Hell Hole', 'Sex Farm', 'Big Bottom' and, of course, the mighty 'Stonehenge', where the little children danced beneath the haunted moon
10/10, although I would go up to 11 if IMDb allowed it.
classicsoncall
Totally outrageous and funny in the way it looks like the band members are playing it straight but sound like complete morons. Michael McKean excels at this kind of stuff but the other players held up their end real well too. Derek's (Harry Shearer) discourse on the band's two visionaries, David (McKean) and Nigel (Christopher Guest) was flat out hilarious, and I had to pause the film a minute to give due admiration for the Intravenous de Milo bit. The Stonehenge gimmick with the eighteen inch prop was pretty ridiculous too. Besides sending up the rock music scene in general, I thought director Reiner paid an off hand tribute to all those variety shows of an earlier era like 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' and 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour', whose guest bands often performed with the flower power colors and psychedelic strobes and lava effects. I can't really say why I never checked out this film before, it's had a strong reputation and avid following for three decades now, but at least I'm a member of that club now. And say, who came up with this line - "You can't really dust for vomit". The writer deserves a free ticket to a Spinal Tap concert.
AD
