This Is Spinal Tap [VHS]

Well, what can I say! This has got to be the funniest film I have ever seen and their are just soo many classic moments and quotes that it is impossible to list them all here.

The 'Stonehenge' scene alone makes it my favourite comedy EVER, but that is not all it has to offer. Who could forget the famous amp scene (these go to eleven) or the pod prop diaster!

And this DVD has so much to offer as well, the deleted scenes is basically another film as well (I think there is an extra hour and a bit!)It's hard to beleive they left so much out. The best 'outtakes' have got to be the album signing scene and the zoo scene! There is also trailers, music videos, promotional stuff and loads more.

So if you fancy a film that never gets boring, never loses its comedy then watch this.

So to finish this review on the greatest film EVER, on a scale of 1 to 10, I give it.... 11!!

But it is not a line that Spinal Tap needs to worry about. Spinal Tap is a razor sharp spoof/satire.

Spinal Tap is a great comic movie - hilarious from start to finish. It takes the (much copied but never bettered) form of a mock documentary (or rockumentary, if you will) following the spoof band as they go on tour of the USA to promote their new album.

Heavy Metal may seem to be beyond parody but Spinal Tap manages. The band is a glorious, grotesque caricature of a heavy metal band: misogynist & sexist, vain, split by internal dissent and artistic differences and hopelessly lacking is self-awareness.

The boys in the band all excellent and totally convincing and there are a lots of great cameos. The songs are glorious parodies of heavy metal songs; listen to the lyrics, they are often hilarious (and of course deeply offensive). The film is full of laugh out loud moments and memorable lines that have entered the lexicon (the airport metal detector, turn it up to 11).

To cap it all off the extras (listed in the product description above) are fantastic and hilarious.

Buy it, watch it, enjoy it

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.