Fran Drescher Movie:

		List Price: $17.98		Label: MGM (Video & DVD) Salesrank: 4696 Released: September 12, 2000
		Our Price: $0.50
		Used Price: $0.24
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: VHS Tape

Editorial Review:
You're about to get personal with one of music history's greatest and loudest heavy metal bands, Spinal Tap! Whether or not you're a die-hard fan of the group, you'll love this detailed "rockumentary" of Engand's legendary Spinal Tap. Acclaimed commercial director Marty DiBergi takes you behind the scenes for an intimate look at a band whose time has come and gone and come again and.... Through interviews, rare footage and lots of musicincluding classic Tap tunes like "Big Bottom" and "Hell Hole"you'll get acquainted with David St. Hubbins (lead guitar), Nigel Tufnel (lead guitar), Derek Smalls (lead bass) and every drummer who ever livedand diedfor this renowned rock band. Be a part of the sights, sounds and smells of this celebrated heavy metal phenomenon. It's an experience you'll never forget.

Description of This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) [VHS]:
Director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) solemnly alerts us to the glory that was Spinal Tap in his introduction to this "rockumentary" about the legendary British heavy-metal group, featuring lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and a succession of drummers whose careers were cut short by spontaneously combusting on their stool, drowning in somebody else's vomit, or otherwise perishing in untimely fashion. Under DiBergi's studious interrogation, the band and their familiars retrace the band's evolution from head-bopping Mersey Beat poseurs to head-banging metal poseurs, each change in musical direction or tonsorial chic having little effect on the surviving trio's sublime idiocy. For, as St. Hubbins (he's the "deep" one, relatively speaking) sagely observes, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

Happily for us, director Reiner, who developed the underlying story line with Guest and former Credibility Gap pranksters McKean and Shearer, stays squarely on the right side of the line, even as his writer-actors remain hilariously trapped on the other side. In lieu of a formal shooting script, the quartet created an extensive and detailed band history ripe with the sort of dead-pan detail that hard-core rock historians and screwball aficionados will savor on countless replays; with the three Tap members also musicians themselves, the "band" developed its stage act under the unsuspecting noses of L.A. club denizens, who accepted them as just as loud, flashy, sexist, and obvious as any other mullet-tressed, leather-garbed brigade of guitar slingers, circa 1984. The resulting footage thus manages to lob its punch lines and build its characters (including some thinly veiled character assassinations of various industry folks) with a loose, tossed-away verve rooted in the improvisational approach. This Is Spinal Tap remains the funniest, and most truthful, look at rock culture ever filmed and a personal best for all involved. --Sam Sutherland

This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) [VHS] Reviews:
Or not so black
2009-11-04 - Every line in this movie is funny. If you're a musician, you have been in all these situations. If you're not a musician, well, emmm...

So what about the festival on the Isle of Lucy? What is that about? ('I Love Lucy' the Lucille Ball show?)

Etc Etc Etc.

They even mocked the big loudest amps and the stupid vintage instrument craze. Indeed, if a guitar can no longer be considered 'true vintage' if the tuners have been replaced, then how can it be considered vintage if the original strings and tags aren't on anymore? Hilarious.
How about sustain? You can go and have a bite, and come back and it'll still be going 'aaaahhhh'...

Again, if you're a musician, every line rings true and is funny. If not, well, ...how much more black can life then be?

Tonight It's Gonna Rock You Tonight
2009-09-29 - Spinal Tap is a classic! One of the funniest movie of all time. On a scale of 1-10 how much I enjoyed this movie, it was an 11!

I admit it, I just don't get this film
2009-09-04 - 1. I'm into rock, classic rock and since this is one of those classic rock films--> I finally decided I needed to check this out.

2. I admit that I'm lacking in... something, but I just don't get this film. It's kind of funny, but more so, it's just... dumb. But I'm willing to acknowledge to the knowledge of the masses that perhaps there is something magical about this film, it just eludes me.

Maudlin
2009-08-02 - We are treated to a mock band which is a cross between heavy metal and rock-and-roll. The narrator Marty DiBergi (Meat Head ... oops Rob Reiner) carries us through a sort of cerebral humor like Bud Abbott Lou Costello's "who's on first" opposed to pure slapstick. This film is quite unique and fun for 15 minutes. Then it repeats it's self over and over and over. Then it just sort of stops.

This presentation looks more like a roll call for unemployed actors. Of course there is always one exception and this exception is Ed Begley Jr.; he performed outstandingly as John 'Stumpy' Pepys. If he was not such a great actor, this could've been his profession. Ed really can play the drums.

Now you might think this is a period piece. However the reality is someone dusted it off for the Blu-ray Ziete.

Sorry I'm not a snob but I waited for the Blu-ray edition before I watched this movie. Therefore I cannot compare it to previous versions. However it looks very grainy and I do not think it was on purpose. There is an audio commentary by Michael McKean and Christopher Guest that tries to justify the movie but sends more time with their own cerebral humor.

From this movie Rob Reiner moved into obscurity. While Ed Begley Jr. excelled in such blockbusters as "Meet the Applegate's." Today he is married to the beautiful Rachelle Carson and champions the green environment.

The Applegate's (aka "Meet The Applegate's") ~ Ed Begley Jr.


Have the DVD? Save your money
2009-07-30 - I am a huge Tap fan, and when I heard that the Blu-Ray version was to include the commentary from the Criterion Collection version, I eagerly paid early to get on the waiting list for this release. After waiting several months for the Blu-Ray, I realize it's been a waste. The Blu-Ray DOES NOT contain that commentary; rather, it is the same (albeit hilarious) commentary from the special edition DVD release from a few years ago. The only new material is a concert video for Stonehenge (trying lamely to recreate, or maybe reboot, the scene from the mockumentary...it doesn't work), and a series of brief interview clips of Nigel Tufnel discussing Stonehenge (the monument) in connection with a recent special on National Geographic. This is painfully bad, as Guest acts hostile and arrogant, completely out of character from his childlike and enthusiastic portrayal of Tufnel in the film. So, about 30 minutes of poor extra material is dropped onto an extra disc, to give you the impression that this is special material. Otherwise, all the bonus features, etc. from the DVD are here. Don't expect a better picture, either, since the film grain and age of the film are quite apparent.