This is Spinal Tap (Special Edition)

If you don’t already own this movie and you’re a fan of music, or a musician, or even a family member of a musician… Shame on ya.

Turn up the volume on this cleverly hilarious Mockumentary. Michael McKean leads the band all the way!

For some reason, I've been writing quite a few "compare and contrast" reviews lately. Personally, I like all kinds of essays myself, and I also like film, and so therefore those are at least two of the reasons that I like reading reviews and essays from the late-great Roger Ebert. But do you remember back in junior high, when the teacher made you write essay after essay, and you just rolled your eyes and groaned? Well, sometimes teachers know best. (Don't ask them about politics, however, as they're almost always on the "wrong side." At least in my opinion.)With regards to "compare and contrast," I wrote a "Carrie" versus "Case 39" review recently. Personally, I liked the latter more than the former -- and that opinion holds for all of the "Carrie" versions -- which seems to contradict the crowd. I did find a couple of reviews around the web from true horror afficianados who seem to agree with me; they thought that "Case 39" was really underrated. But for the compare-and-contrast part, you'll notice that parents of a young girl tried to kill her at the beginning of each film. Well at least in the new "Carrie" remake; I can't remember the original exactly, but it definitely holds in "Case 39" too. But after that, the films diverge a bit."Where is this all going?!?" you're probably asking to yourself and if you're still reading, which most likely you are not. But if you are, I wanted to compare and contrast this film with some more recent films made about music. In particular, I just watched "Metallica: Through the Never" recently, not because I'm a Metallica fan -- I saw them live once but I find them to be mostly a headache-fest of a metal band -- but rather because, on my Apple TV box, when I was perusing films, that film made the assertion that if I liked "Spinal Tap" that I would like "Into the Never" too. I thought, "Killer! I love 'Spinal Tap' so 'Never' must be great too!" (By the way: the dictionary defines "never" as being an adverb. Why is Metallica using it as a noun? And that reminds me of another "music" film: "One Direction: This is Us." Now, I believe that the title should be "One Direction: This is We." Yeah, it sounds strange, but the to-be-and-linking-verb "is" might be the clue. And remember when you answer the phone? You're supposed to say proudly, "This is he," or "This is she," both examples of the correct-but-odd-sounding-predicate-nominative case. I highly recommend reading Grammar Girl's musings on these issues; she's excellent:http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/it-is-i-versus-it-is-me)Now, the actors in "Spinal Tap" -- at least the characters they are playing -- know little to nothing about adverbs, nouns, or even the more tricky predicate-nominative case. But who cares? While this film has fun with the characters, it really never makes fun of them per se. In reality, even though they're nearly crazy, and even though they don't seem to understand that making the highest volume on an amplifier 11 doesn't make it actually louder than if it were simply 10 (there is always a linear transformation in any of these types of problems, after all), the film will laugh with the characters and not usually at them. Even the audience will laugh, but they still find these characters oddly charming and mostly sympathetic. But most important: this film is clever while doing it. Very clever.On the other hand, I found "Into the Never" neither entertaining nor clever. And I recently tried to watch "Rock of Ages," and I hated it too. The tone was all wrong, and the characters were neither believable nor interesting. Now, if you watch "Glee," the singers on that very funny TV show do covers of rock songs -- like Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" as an example -- and they do those covers in a slightly cheesy manner. But they are supposed to be cheesy; they're in Glee, for God's sakes! How many people in any glee clubs that you know are bullies? But in "Rock of Ages," minus perhaps Tom Cruise, the character are whimps and it just doesn't work. Rockers are supposed to be tough guys.I could go on all day, but I hope that you see my point. And I also hope that you'll think about those junior high days, think about those essays that you wrote that made you hate your teachers. But maybe you should thank those teachers now, since they gave you a skill, a skill that allows you to give evidence that "Spinal Tap" is "pure awesomeness" (as Jack Black might say), while "Metallica: Into the Never" and "One Direction: This is Us" not only have possible English issues with regards to their titles, but are also possibly uninteresting films. Which is worse?

I figured out charlie from better caul saul is the blonde dude in this movie and had to rewatch it. 11/10!

This mockumentary is one of the best Christopher Guest has ever done. This trip with Reiner is Spot on perfect and full of little one liners and jokes and hilarious cameos.You can watch the movie again and again and still laugh at things you never noticed before. Plus the commentary is done by the group AS the group and has you rolling as hard as the initial movie did. Buy ASAP!

The funniest 80s film!

Was so excited to get this movie on DVD so I can watch it whenever I want to (not available to stream anywhere at the moment) and still love the movie but am disappointed with the supposed “Special Edition”. The description said it was newly transferred to digital but the quality is very poor. I’ve see movies from the 40s transferred that were way better quality. Audio volume is a bit manic, so I turned it down and went to turn subtitles on but it only had French and Spanish subtitles. Really? This is 2022 and you can’t do English subtitles??Haven’t gotten to the extras yet, but hope there is something(s) worthy in them to make this a “Special Edition”!?!Hate to give this anything less than 5.1 stars, cause the movie deserves it, but the quality of the DVD is 2 or 3 stars, so I went with 4 stars. But in doing that, I’m afraid other people are going to assume that is for the movie itself and not the quality of the DVD distribution. Probably going to order the BR version to see if it is better. If it is, I will update my rating.But until then, if you order this, plan on getting a watchable version of the movie, not a “Special Edition” and just enjoy the greatness and laughs of this fun, timeless classic!

I haven’t seen this for some years and wanted to watch it again with my wife , who has never seen it.It wasn’t available on any streaming service so I opted to buy it.While it may have dated a bit it is still as funny as ever. My wife enjoyed it immensely and wondered why she never saw it when it first came out.It’s the sort of film I could watch again over the coming years.

Awesome film, and as a musician, I can see the truth in there!! Never get tired of watching, laughs a-plenty guaranteed!!

I was recommended this film by a jazz musician from the Sixties. I had never heard of it before.So, as soon as I had some money, I ordered a Blu-ray disc. Since I live in India and the disc was Region B, it did not play and I eventually had to ask Amazon to replace it with a DVD. Yes, I had to wait a lot, but it was definitely worth it.This has to be the ultimate twentieth century rock group spoof I have seen! Anyone who has followed any rock 'n' roll group seriously would be able to relate to it, and see the junkyard that rock has become. The Extras of the movie have interviews that tell exactly from which rock group they took which particular element. But what they miss is the reference to The Beach Boys and The Moody Blues in the short fictional footage from the Sixties. It is amazing how they have tried to recreate the same audio/video quality from the Sixties, while the rest of the film is in Eighties.The short footage is a take on a lot of Sixties artists trying to jump on the psychedelic bandwagon: wear colorful clothes, sing about love and beauty and flower power, add a little bit of sitar here and there and you have a hit. I wonder how they miss the reference to Blue Öyster Cult, which is evident in the title of the film (note the 'n̈'). There is also a reference to Deep Purple, where David shouts 'Spinal Tap Mark Two!'Leaving aside the references to different bands, the film is primarily a spoof on British groups, because, well, 'all-the-good-stuff-comes-from-there.'It mocks the socialite circles that rock musicians have to go into, record labels, band managers, their attempt to boost sales because of racy covers, stage imagery, British rockers feeling unfettered once they enter the States and trying to be more wild. At another level, it traces the journey of rock from its beginnings in the Fifties, as the band members of Spinal Tap were in a skiffle rock group (very common in those days, and the story of almost every rocker in the Sixties), then in a psychedelic group (which mocks The Rolling Stones and The Moody Blues), then in a hard rock/heavy metal group like Priest or Maiden. The ending of the movie is a hilarious take on any-and-every rock group making it big in Japan. I could go on, because every shot in the film is a commentary on some or the other aspect of society and music industry.If you're interested in twentieth century pop/rock culture, you cannot do without this film.

What a wonderful surprise to see This Is Spinal Tap in the original dvd special edition.Great price and it came in less than 24 hours.

Did Elton John watch this before making Tantrums and Tiaras? Did Madonna see it before making 'In Bed with Madonna'? Have Metallica watched this before releasing `Metallica' (the black album)? Did U2 see this before visiting Graceland in Rattle and Hum? Have Velvet Revolver watched it before forming a band?The humour throughout Spinal Tap is dry and observed rather than slapstick in your face and that is fine by me. Hissy fits about food, on stage pompous prop failure, the tuning of a violin used during a guitar solo, radio interference on stage, the constant replacement of drummers, getting lost on the way to the stage, the revival of the career in Japan, amplifiers that go to eleven, all the jokes and clichés are there, in fact I think this film may have invented a few.In much the same way that the British TV series `Drop the Dead donkey' character Damien Day successfully lampooned cliché overly self important `on the spot' news reporters, to the point where I struggle to take these `news hounds' seriously, I find it hard to take most TV `Rockumentary' programmes seriously as a result of Spinal Tap. Musicians and producers talking to camera about their `work' just isn't the same.Both influenced and influencing Spinal Tap is a work of comedy genius. Not many films have dialogue that enter the language, the phrase `its all a bit spinal tap' I have heard used in the media on countless occasions, and will be for years to come. There is little funnier in film or television when life imitates art, and art then imitates life to this degree. If we can see it, why can't they? All you need to enjoy this is a sense of humour.