This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Redundant and unnecessary.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest made a classic, helping to define the 'mockumentary' genre with incredible characters and endless memorable lines. Loved it!

This movie can be Seen a 100 times and not be bored, Truly a class of its own. Don't believe me? Then Go ask Worlds most famous Rockstars, they will tell you the story. Not Only that i have also watched its follow ups and fake interviews, They kill it in every single One. It was way ahead of its time But Behind everything else.

Pros 1. This movie is full of memorable quotes like Nigels "there's such a thin line between clever and stupid" or Spinal Tap manager Ian hand-waving the band's decreasing turnout at concerts by explaining Spinal Tap's appeal is just becoming selective.2. This movie has some of the funniest visual gags I've ever seen like the disastrous Stonehenge model in danger of being squashed by a Dwarf or Derek being trapped in a pod.3. The soundtrack is phenomenal: for a fake band they sure put real effort into the songs and they're all good. 4. The Spinal Tap 3 all work well together and have great chemistry. It's no wonder the 3 have continued to work together, not just as Spinal Tap but also in Christopher Guest mockumentaries. 5. The movie has great brief appearances from people like Fran Drescher, Bruno Kirby, Billy Crystal, Howard Hesseman, Paul Benedict (Spinal Tap was released during The Jefferson's 10th and penultimate season) and Paul Schaffer (reuniting with Harry Shearer after they were SNL cast members in the Fall 1979 - Spring 1980 season).6. Best Line Derek: (after a big argument about a poorly-designed Stonehenge model caused the manager to quit the band) Can I raise a practical question at this point? Are we going to do Stonehenge tomorrow? David: No we're not f---ing going to do Stonehenge!Cons 1. I never understood the logic of the director asking David & Nigel if they're racist since they're music is usually only favored by Caucasians. That makes as much sense to me as asking the CEO of Toys R Us if he's prejudiced against adults because his company's products are popular with children.2. During the Stonehenge argument, Ian is listing all the things he does for the band and one of them is "prizing rent from the local Hebrews". I know he's upset about being nagged by the other guys but that's not an excuse for using this tired anti-semitic stereotype about Jews being obsessed with money and charging excessively high rates.3. When Janine butts in to the Stonehedge argument, Ian responds "this is a band meeting, is she now part of the band?" If the meeting is band only, why is the film crew allowed to attend?

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.