Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11051 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-03-15
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen, Surround Sound
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The comedic genius of This Is Spinal Tap is confirmed by the fact that a majority of studio executives were utterly clueless about its brilliance. As a first-time director and cowriter, Rob Reiner must have felt simultaneously frustrated and elated, knowing that the obtuseness of movie executives was a clue to his debut project's potential greatness. Now, of course, the clarity of hindsight and the rarity of superior satire have turned This Is Spinal Tap into one of the funniest documentary spoofs of all time. Reiner and the members of "Tap" (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer) couldn't have picked a better target for their satire, because heavy metal music in the early 1980s was already a borderline case of self-parody. From the bizarre, premature deaths of the band's drummers to the backstage squabbles over sexist cover art and meddling groupies, this movie scores about a hundred comedic bull's-eyes for lampooning every possible aspect of rock pomposity in the age of Kiss. It's a virtual bible of rock & roll irreverence, so accurate in its observations that it's become a tour-bus classic for real bands around the world. On the one-to-ten scale of satirical inspiration, This Is Spinal Tap is like the modified amplifiers that Christopher Guest so hilariously demonstrates: this one goes to 11. --Jeff Shannon

Video Description
Special Features

Customer Reviews

A feature-packed DVD which goes up to 11
This DVD goes up to 11 - one louder. This is what the DVD was created for. The first disc of this two-disc set contains the film and a commentary from the band. The picture quality is superb and the sound is excellent - the ...metal numbers are perfect CD quality. The second CD contains what basically amounts to an alternate version of the film - out-takes which are almost good enouhg to have been in the original. On top of that, you get piles of extras - videos, trailers, archive footage, interviews and, of course, adverts for bizarre Australian savoury pastry products. What more could you ever ask for from a DVD. The film itself is excellent. I had heard so much about it beforehand - mainly from sad obsessive fans - that I watched it for the first time wanting not to like it. But it really is well worth watching - even if you can't stand Heavy Metal. Everyone plays it completely straight - and that's what makes it all so funny. The songs are also superb in a terrible kind of way. There are too many wonderful bits in this to mention - but the show-stopping performance of the theatrical soft rock classic Stonehenge has to be the highlight of the film.

It's a fine line between being clever and stupid
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

Absolutely Hilarious!!
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!!