It stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer as members of the fictional English heavy metal band Spinal Tap (who are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands"),[4][5] and Reiner as Martin "Marty" Di Bergi, a documentary filmmaker who follows them on their American tour. Their songs are good, albeit offensive at times. Lars Ulrich told a press conference crowd that the Metallica/Guns N' Roses 1992 tour seemed "so Spinal Tap." Comedic genius Christopher Guest celebrates his birthday today (February 5.) Smartly directed, brilliantly acted, and packed with endlessly quotable moments, This Is Spinal Tap is an all-time comedy classic. Verified reviews are considered more trustworthy by fellow moviegoers. [58], Fran Drescher reprised the role of Bobbi Fleckman during the fifth season of her hit television sitcom The Nanny; it was the season's third episode, titled "The Bobbi Fleckman Story". comedy, All Critics (66) The band is besieged by bad luck (their drummers keep dying off under bizarre circumstances), poor taste, and questionable talent. Glenn Danzig had a similar reaction when comparing Spinal Tap to his former band The Misfits saying, "When I first saw Spinal Tap, I was like, 'Hey, this is my old band.'"[33]. When the film was released, Aerosmith's most recent album, Rock in a Hard Place, depicted Stonehenge prominently on the cover. [citation needed] Richard D. Titus, UX&D Controller for the BBC adopted a Spinal Tap inspired suggestion from a colleague that the BBC iPlayer should have a volume control that goes to eleven. "[32] Segments of Marty's film show David and Nigel to be competent but dimwitted and immature musicians. Much of this material had appeared on a 1994 CD-ROM by The Voyager Company that included the entire film in QuickTime format. This Is Spinal Tap has some issues, but overall it's a lot of fun and provides plenty of laughs. For example, as a parallel to the "Shit Sandwich" incident, Quiet Riot's fourth album Condition Critical was given the two-word review of "Condition Terminal" by J. D. Considine in Musician magazine. I feel it's like, it's more like going, going to a national park or something, and there's... you know, they preserve the moose. [41] When Entertainment Weekly compiled their list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, the publication included the film as "just too beloved to ignore". The first DVD release was a 1998 Criterion edition in letterbox format which used supplemental material from the 1994 Criterion LaserDisc release. Regal It produced the 1984 soundtrack album of the same name. Photo: Getty Images. This Is Spinal Tap (stylized as This Is Spın̈al Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi) is a 1984 American mockumentary film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner in his directorial debut. In 2000, MGM Home Entertainment released a special edition with more or less the same extras from the Criterion edition, plus a new audio commentary track with Guest, McKean and Shearer performing in character throughout, commenting on the film entirely in their fictional alter-egos, and often disapproving of how the film presents them; 70 minutes of deleted scenes (some of which were not on the Criterion DVD); a new short, Catching Up with Marty Di Bergi (where it is revealed that the members of Spinal Tap were very disappointed in Di Bergi for making a "hatchet job" of their film); the Heavy Metal Memories promo and six additional TV promos; music videos for "Gimme Some Money", "Listen to the Flower People" and "Big Bottom"; and segments of Spinal Tap appearing on The Joe Franklin Show. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in this list: On October 17, 2016, actor Harry Shearer filed a $125 million fraud and breach of contract lawsuit against both StudioCanal, the successor in interest to Embassy Pictures, and Vivendi, which owns the studio. [13], Veteran documentary cameraman Peter Smokler worked as cinematographer on the film. $14.99 Building a movie around a fake one is a challenge of a different order. Cinemark Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. This Is Spinal Tap is one of the most hilarious spoofs ever put to film. Drescher's regular character Fran Fine believes Fleckman is attempting to seduce Sheffield, and impersonates her to stop it. The band sings "Heartbreak Hotel" because that was the only Elvis song for which producer Karen Murphy could obtain rights. The film satirizes the behavior and musical pretensions of rock bands and the hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries such as The Song Remains the Same (1976), and The Last Waltz (1978) and follows the similar All You Need Is Cash (1978) by The Rutles. |, March 3, 2014 It stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer as members of the fictional English heavy metal band Spinal Tap (who are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands"), and Reiner as Martin "Marty" Di Bergi, a documentary filmmaker who follows them on their American tour. The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. [44], This Is Spinal Tap at 35: Tribeca Film Festival (The Guardian)[45]. [17][18][19] The film currently holds a 95% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 65 reviews, with an average rating of 8.64/10. [7] In 2016, film critic and author Jeremy Arnold chose it as one of the "52 Must-See Movies", describing it as "one of the single most influential movies of the past thirty-five years" and arguing that it "effectively launched a new genre—the mockumentary".[5]. Sign up here. Rob Reiner's directorial debut is one of the funniest movies of the 1980's and it oddly enough summed up hard rock/heavy metal's popularity in a mocking manner. Do you feel that playing rock and roll music keeps you a child... that is, keeps you in a state of arrested development? The key, as Spinal Tap proved, is to fabricate a band that looks, acts and sounds at least as good as the real thing. 's Mike Mills described the band's early tours as "very Spinal Tap", citing, among other things, they had played at a United States Air Force base. From the Criterion Collection DVD Commentary. ''This Is Spinal Tap,'' which opens today at Loews New York Twin and other theaters, is a witty, mischievous satire, and it's obviously a labor of love. Looking to watch This is Spinal Tap? The laughs are hearty and the dialogue is easily quotable. Pennebaker. It includes all bonus features from the MGM DVD plus an interview with Nigel about Stonehenge and Stonehenge from the band's Live Earth performance. It's considered a rockumentary. [57] The term has entered the vernacular, as with an autistic's description of sensory overload vis-à-vis a neurotypical's routine filtering. | Rating: 8/10 It stays so wickedly close to the subject that it is very nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. [50] In October 2017, Spinal Tap revised their case by adding Universal Music Group (UMG, another division of Vivendi, whose Polydor label released the film's soundtrack) as a defendant, as well as the right to reclaim their copyrights to the film, its songs and characters. music, Free Movies Online: 200 Fresh Movies to Watch Online For Free, October 23, 2018 Spinal Tap not only has the original soundtrack available but have two or three additional albums out. "[20], Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 4 stars out of 4 and wrote "This Is Spinal Tap is one of the funniest, most intelligent, most original films of the year. From the Criterion Collection DVD Commentary. This Is Spinal Tap - Spinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour. Paul Du Noyer, "Who the hell does Jimmy Page think he is? Spinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour. Nigel suggests staging a lavish show, and asks Ian to order a Stonehenge megalith. "[21] Ebert later placed the film on his ten best list of 1984 and would later include it in his Great Movies list in 2001 where he called it "one of the funniest movies ever made". His review of the short-lived band GTR's eponymous debut LP in the same magazine was "SHT". Reiner's brilliantly inventive script and smart visuals avoid all the obvious pitfalls, making this one of the funniest ever films about the music business. The satire has a deft, wicked touch. The comedy is hysterical and quite clever in how it satirizes the stereotypes associated with rock-n-rock bands. | Top Critics (12) and the Terms and Policies, [29][30][31] When Dokken's George Lynch saw the film he is said to have exclaimed, "That's us! Rob Reiner's directorial debut is the story of Spinal Tap, an aging group of rockers with one last shot at fame and glory. [49] In September 2017, a judge dismissed Shearer, Reiner and McKean from the case. |, March 2, 2019 That tended to understate the hugeness of the object. | Fresh (63) Tensions arise between the band and their manager Ian Faith. A filmmaker documents the history of Spinal Tap, the world''''s loudest rock band. Does for rock and roll what "The Sound of Music" did for hills All rights reserved. They had a hit as the Thamesmen with their single "Gimme Some Money", before changing their name to Spinal Tap and achieving a minor hit with the flower power anthem "Listen to the Flower People", and finally transitioning to heavy metal. So much footage was filmed (over 100 hours) that it eventually required three editors to complete the film.[12]. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Golden Tomato Awards: Best Movies & TV of 2020. As the band performs, David invites Nigel onstage, reuniting them, which excites everyone but Jeanine. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.” One of the satirical… Any similarities to black sabbath are purely coincidental. The band comprises childhood friends David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel on vocals and guitar, bassist Derek Smalls, keyboardist Viv Savage, and drummer Mick Shrimpton. 'We’ve Got, You Know, Armadillos In Our Trousers' "It's really quite frightening, the size." [8][9], Guest had previously played guitar under the name "Nigel Tufnel" on Michael McKean and David Lander's album Lenny and the Squigtones. It's a film to watch midnight Saturday after drinking some red bulls, that was not the setting I was in. [53] A settlement between Vivendi, StudioCanal, and the cast on the merchandising aspect was reached in September 2020 with final details to be resolved in the following months.[54]. Coming Soon. |, January 19, 2013 Judas Priest, the heavy metal band that Rob Reiner saw in preparation for the film, has had many drummers in its career (eight in total), which the website Ultimate Classic Rock described as "positively Spinal Tap-worthy". The Canadian heavy metal band Anvil, whose drummer is named Robb Reiner, have been called "the real Spinal Tap" based on the misadventures depicted in their documentary Anvil! Coming Soon. | Rating: A+ Ian Faith loses his rag. At one point, Nigel shows Marty a custom-made amplifier that has volume knobs that go up to eleven, believing this would make their output louder. Spinal Tap is not that much worse than, not that much different from, some successful rock bands. |, February 9, 2006 They shopped the demo around to various studios but had no takers, until television writer-producer Norman Lear decided to back the project. At the last show of the tour, David and Derek consider exploring old side projects, such as a musical theatre production about Jack the Ripper. A band that loses most of their drummers to strange mishaps including one who choked on someone else's vomit. R.E.M. In post-production, Christopher Guest was very concerned with the verisimilitude of the finger positions on the band's instruments during the concert scenes, and even re-shot some footage after the movie was edited to ensure their hands appeared in sync with the music. That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.". The site's critical consensus reads, "Smartly directed, brilliantly acted, and packed with endlessly quotable moments, This Is Spinal Tap is an all-time comedy classic. So when you're playing, you feel like a preserved moose onstage? Since its release, This Is Spinal Tap has received acclaim from critics[16] and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1984. In one of the film’s most iconic moments, … "This is Spinal Tap" is about a fictional band named Spinal Tap, a band with the distinction of being called "The World's Loudest Band." Shortly after the tour started, Metallica's James Hetfield suffered third degree burns on his arms after he stood too close to a pyrotechnic device. [32] After seeing a 1986 performance by metal band Venom, singer Henry Rollins compared them to Spinal Tap. As often as possible, the first take was used in the film, to capture natural reactions. This Is Spinal Tap was first released on VHS in 1984 by Embassy Home Entertainment, and in 1994 as part of the Criterion Collection on LaserDisc under the title, This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition. Stylistically it's interesting for the films to satire rock stereotypes, and make the all around setting feel real. At a gig at a United States Air Force base, Nigel is upset by an equipment malfunction and quits mid-performance. | Rotten (3). [28], The film resonated with many musicians. [42] In 2011, Time Out London named it the best comedy film of all time. [13], Virtually all dialogue in the film is improvised. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy Following the ill-fated American comeback tour of an aging heavy-metal group, this film has joined the ranks of the greatest comedies ever made. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Vintage Tap Materials This section of the disc is dedicated to Spinal Tap's many appearance on television shows through the ages. They started out in the skiffle craze that swept Britain before becoming a rock and roll band, then psychedelia and settling on heavy metal where they sort of stuck in that genre for over a decade. In the documentary, a mock silent film called The Drummer Story is shown explaining what happened to their previous drummers. U2 guitarist The Edge said in the documentary It Might Get Loud that when he first saw Spinal Tap, "I didn't laugh, I wept," because it summed up what a brainless swamp big-label rock music had become.[34]. In 2002, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. A 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Disc release was released on July 28, 2009. ( 63 ) | Fresh ( 63 ) | Fresh ( 63 ) Top. 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