upstill@ucbvax.UUCP (Steve Upstill) (04/01/84)
Highly recommended, especially for anyone with a passing familiarity
with the rock music scene over the past ten years.
The movie is a fake documentary on the (barely) fictional heavy-metal
group Spinal Tap (sic). The "documentary" covers the groups first
American tour in six years from disaster to disaster. So much for plot.
Several ex-National Lampoonies had hand in this one, unsurprisingly
to judge by the result: the humor is largely based on dead-accurate
parody, with a range and density of detail that is truly astonishing
considering that the film was largely improvised. They have managed to
wring far more humor than you'd ever think possible out of a single genre
of music and one of film. I was consistently amused by the characters
and situations and frequently laughing out loud at the gags.
Watch for the many cameos, including one by David Letterman's Paul
Shaffer. Try to convince yourself that the three main band members
aren't really British. Wonder aloud where Rob Reiner (director, cowriter
and costar) has been hiding all this talent all these years. Laugh your
ass off.
***1/2
Steve Upstilloscar@utcsrgv.UUCP (Oscar M. Nierstrasz) (04/22/84)
Deadpan `rockumentary' about a fictitious over-the-hill heavy metal band.
Directed by Rob `Meathead, son of Carl' Reiner.
Very clever and very funny. Except for a few points where they go
a little too far, this is a perfectly convincing parody of rock
music documentary film-making. Complete with Aging English Rock
dinosaurs (wonderfully portrayed by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean
& others), internal squabbles, Yoko Ono-reminiscent interfering girlfriend,
old TV clips from the mid sixties and later from their psychedelia period,
and convincing concert footage.
Much of this film was improvised, but with a supreme effort to keep it
as believable as possible ("There's a fine line between clever and stupid",
says one of the group during the film). "When we started out we called
ourselves The Originals. Then we found out there was another band in
the city also called The Originals so we changed our name. But then
the other band broke up, so we decided to take the old name back,
except call ourselves The New Originals ..." And so on.
Go see. Enjoy.
Oscar Nierstraszleeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/12/85)
THIS IS SPINAL TAP
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Ringo Starr was once asked in an interview, "Why do you [ the Beatles]
write music?" His response was, " Well, if we didn't, we'd be fookin'
unemployed." And there you have the essence of THIS IS SPINAL TAP. This
pseudo-documentary examines the lives and personalities of the four boys who
play for the fictitious rock group Spinal Tap. Separately they are just
four British lads trying to make a living. Together they are true
mediocrity. We see them sharing each other's lives, sharing each other's
music, and sharing about 300 IQ points among them.
Now I don't know much about rock music and I was told I would not
appreciate many of the gags of the film. Bull! This is a funny film even
if you've never heard of rock music. You only have to appreciate seeing
pompous, self-important people making fools of themselves. Even if you have
never been to a rock concert, you can appreciate seeing stage props
lampooned, or the weird rock performers exaggerated just enough to look
completely absurd. This film has some very funny running gags and some
really off-the-wall ideas. The last film that had me laughing like this was
A CHRISTMAS STORY, and that was 16 months ago! I won't detract from the
film by giving away any of the gags, but I will say I got a good ten or
twelve belly laughs from the film. Watch for THIS IS SPINAL TAP. It's a +2
film on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!ahutb!leeper
But, on May 1, I become ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper
(And I thought it was tough pronouncing ahutb!)