Review of This Is Spinal Tap

The question is: how much more funny can Spinal Tap be? And the answer is none. None more funny. 'This Is Spinal Tap' is a 'rockumentary', if you will, was directed by Rob Reiner. Much of this film was ad-libbed, and several dozen hours of footage were shot before Reiner edited it down to the released film. The first time you watch the film, you will not notice everything. By the second or third time, you start to notice how some of the characters burst out laughing, and struggle to get back into character. In my opinion, it was the funniest movie ever made. Reiner appears as Marty DiBergi, the maker of the documentary, and films the band's 'Smell The Glove' North American tour. The film mocks the arrogance, ignorance, sexist, stupidity, and egotistical nature of heavy metal bands trying to sound smarter than they really are. The album review scene was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. The made-up Spinal Tap album covers were pure comedic brilliance. As it turns out, many of the band' mishaps actually occurred to real-life bands, which makes it even funnier, so there is a sense of truth to the film. The film notes early on that Spinal Tap — "One of England's Loudest Bands" — have had a succession of drummers, all of whom have died under odd circumstances, one in a "bizarre gardening accident". (Since the film's release, Toto's drummer Jeff Porcaro actually died in a gardening-related accident.) Another of Spinal Tap's drummers "choked on vomit", specifically someone else's vomit (several musicians have died after choking on their own vomit, notably guitarist Jimi Hendrix, drummer John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, and Bon Scott, the original singer of AC/DC); and one drummer seems to have fallen prey to spontaneous human combustion. This run on drummers was a nod towards several bands; both John Bonham and Keith Moon had died years before, while Judas Priest were, for a variety of reasons, on their seventh drummer at the time of the film's release. However, the main inspiration for the running joke is the supposed curse on keyboard players for the Grateful Dead. Black Sabbath had a cross stage production design that was done in inches rather than feet, parodied by the Stonehenge monument in the film. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got completely lost on the way to the stage. The lyrics to Spinal Tap's songs are probably some of the funniest things ever written to date. All fans are in agreement that 'Spinal Tap Mark III' should be made, and everyone is in anticipation for it. If I were to write the screenplay…it would probably look something like this:

MARTIN DI BERGI: Let's talk about some of your more recent reviews for a bit. The review of 'The Number Of The Geek': "Most of the songs fall well below the mediocre territory. None will be hits. The title track, 'The Number Of The Geek', for example, meanders pointlessly through a snooze-fest chorus that encourages track skipping. Tap is an average band with below average songs. I don't see where this album has any true market or future. It is a candidate for the worst release of 2006."

David ST. HUBBINS Is average better than mediocre?

DEREK SMALLS Average is way better than mediocre. It's even better than medieval.

MARTIN DI BERGI The review you had on 'Surgeon Killer': "Surprisingly, the album is on track to only sell between 100,000 and 200,000 copies in its first week. What isn't surprising is that the album is complete crap."

MARTIN DI BERGI Regarding…'Vanilla Platypus And The Poop Flavored Coffee": "This album is a full sided lobotomy of old style Disney tunes. Why are Spinal Tap's CD sales plummeting year after year? It's not because iTunes is so much better; it's because some of the album titles were so retarded we were ashamed to be overheard asking for them."