This Is Spinal Tap

March. 02,1984      R
Rating:
7.9
Trailer Synopsis Cast

"This Is Spinal Tap" shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts, including everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, along with the full host of requisite groupies, promoters, hangers-on and historians, sessions, release events and those special behind-the-scenes moments that keep it all real.

Christopher Guest as  Nigel Tufnel
Michael McKean as  David St. Hubbins
Harry Shearer as  Derek Smalls
Rob Reiner as  Marty DiBergi
June Chadwick as  Jeanine Pettibone
Bruno Kirby as  Tommy Pischedda
Ed Begley Jr. as  John 'Stumpy' Pepys
Fran Drescher as  Bobbi Flekman
Dana Carvey as  Mime Waiter
Sandy Helberg as  Angelo DiMentibelio

Similar titles

Meet the Browns
Prime Video
Meet the Browns
A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. When she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral, but nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed... and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.
Meet the Browns 2008
Planet 51
Max
Planet 51
When Earth astronaut Capt. Chuck Baker arrives on Planet 51 -- a world reminiscent of American suburbia circa 1950 -- he tries to avoid capture, recover his spaceship and make it home safely, all with the help of an empathetic little green being.
Planet 51 2009
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Prime Video
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Charles, an attorney, and Helen, his devoted wife, seemed to have everything – money, a beautiful mansion – the American Dream. However, as Helen prepares to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary, her life takes an unexpected twist when she comes home to find her clothes packed up in a U-Haul van parked in the driveway. Charles is divorcing her and kicks her out. Helen moves in with her grandmother Madea, an old woman who doesn't take any lip from anyone. Madea helps Helen through these tough times by showing her what is really important in life. Helen is forced to rediscover love, life and religion on her pursuit for happiness.
Diary of a Mad Black Woman 2005
Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier
Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier
Hop on your flying carpet, because this musical parody retells the classic tale of Aladdin... from the villain's point of view! Long ago in a Magic Kingdom, one misunderstood Royal Vizier will go on a quest to save his city from its bumbling sultan, an invading prince, and the most notorious thief to ever live! With the help of the Kingdom's free-spirited, teenage Princess, the Vizier must find a magical lamp containing a wish-granting Djinn (who's really funny, by the way) and defeat the city's most-wanted criminal... Aladdin! This musical adventure celebrates and lovingly pokes fun at everyone's favorite series of hand-drawn, animated films.
Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier 2013
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Pink Floyd: The Wall
A troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
Pink Floyd: The Wall 1982
Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine
The wicked Blue Meanies take over Pepperland, eliminating all color and music. As the only survivor, the Lord Admiral escapes in the yellow submarine and journeys to Liverpool to enlist the help of the Beatles.
Yellow Submarine 1968
Year One
Prime Video
Year One
When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world.
Year One 2009
Robin and the 7 Hoods
Robin and the 7 Hoods
In prohibition-era Chicago, the corrupt sheriff and Guy Gisborne, a south-side racketeer, knock off the boss Big Jim. Everyone falls in line behind Guy except Robbo, who controls the north side. Although he's out-gunned, Robbo wants to keep his own territory. A pool-playing dude from Indiana and the director of a boys' orphanage join forces with Robbo; and, when he gives some money to the orphanage, he becomes the toast of the town as a hood like Robin Hood. Meanwhile, Guy schemes to get rid of Robbo, and Big Jim's heretofore unknown daughter Marian appears and goes from man to man trying to find an ally in her quest to run the whole show. Can Robbo hold things together?
Robin and the 7 Hoods 1964

You May Also Like

Strangers with Candy
Strangers with Candy
A prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her life over.
Strangers with Candy 2006
Radio Days
Prime Video
Radio Days
The Narrator tells us how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. In the New York City of the late 1930s to the New Year's Eve 1944, this coming-of-age tale mixes the narrator's experiences with contemporary anecdotes and urban legends of the radio stars.
Radio Days 1987
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Prime Video
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Aliens disguised as clowns crash land on Earth in a rural town to capture unsuspecting victims in cotton candy cocoons for later consumption.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space 1988
Enemy Mine
Starz
Enemy Mine
A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world after sustaining battle damage. Eventually he encounters another survivor, but from the enemy species he was fighting; they band together to survive on this hostile world. In the end the human finds himself caring for his enemy in a completely unexpected way.
Enemy Mine 1985
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Prime Video
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Two con men try to settle their rivalry by betting on who can be the first to swindle a young American heiress out of $50,000.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels 1988
Scarface
Prime Video
Scarface
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
Scarface 1983
Best in Show
Paramount+
Best in Show
The tension is palpable, the excitement is mounting and the heady scent of competition is in the air as hundreds of eager contestants from across America prepare to take part in what is undoubtedly one of the greatest events of their lives -- the Mayflower Dog Show. The canine contestants and their owners are as wondrously diverse as the great country that has bred them.
Best in Show 2000
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile 2019
Burden of Dreams
Burden of Dreams
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.
Burden of Dreams 1982
Bamboozled
Bamboozled
TV producer Pierre Delacroix becomes frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea. Hoping to get fired, Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.
Bamboozled 2000

Reviews

Chirphymium
1984/03/02

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

... more
Salubfoto
1984/03/03

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

... more
Marva
1984/03/04

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

... more
Curt
1984/03/05

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

... more
fredroyer
1984/03/06

It's super obvious that all 4 principles are talented musicians, but what they did here is sublime. I mean, how do you outdo Steely Dan? By Writing a song about buttocks called "Big Bottom", or Sex Farm Woman. What I love most about the movie is all the dialogue is ab-libbed. So you had to have a sense of your character, who you are making fun of, who your audience is and all of their lines are hysterically funny. The target is low hanging fruit of course, heavy metal music bands.If I had to pick just one movie to watch on a desert island, it would be this one.

... more
sulphuric_acid-38764
1984/03/07

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.

... more
Uriah43
1984/03/08

This film is essentially about a so-called heavy metal group named "Spinal Tap" who have found that their customer base has been shrinking and have therefore launched a come-back tour to recapture their lost glory—as if they ever had any to begin with. Be that as it may, even though their new manager named "Ian Faith" (Tony Hendra) tries his best to set things up for their United States tour it soon becomes quite obvious that he is totally incompetent for the job at hand. Also quite evident is the fact that the band members are equally clueless about why their music doesn't attract large audiences. So they continue to produce one idiotic song after the other and devise all kinds of failed stage gimmicks in the mistaken belief that they are somehow on the verge of a major breakthrough. When these don't work the manager quits and is replaced by the lead singer's girlfriend "Jeanine Pettibone" (June Chadwick) who is even more incompetent than Ian ever was. Not surprisingly, things get even worse at that point. In any case, while this turned out to be a decent comedy for the most part, I should also mention that it probably takes some getting used to. Because of that, some viewers may not like it that much and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

... more
sharky_55
1984/03/09

Film-maker Marty DeBergi has assigned himself a mission to investigate the inner lives of the rock band Spinal Tap, who he is drawn to not because of their lyrical poetry or their composition but because they can lay claim to being one of the loudest bands in Britain. Marty is played by Rob Reiner himself and is the crucial building block of his debut mockumentary. He wields his camera with sincerity, honesty and authenticity, and seems to hold the same qualities in his face, letting the inevitable mayhem of the band happen before his eyes. Reiner is a great comedic actor; he knows when to nod politely, and when to feign modest interest (almost always), and throughout the entire journey does not ever relinquish his poker face even slightly. His seriousness lends legitimacy to his capturing of the rogue band, and makes it all the more funny when they break from convention.The genius of the film is in how little effort Marty has put to in to get any decent material for his documentary. He points the camera, offers a few probing questions, and Spinal Tap do the rest. Through the simple verite style presentation there is the suggestion of a wilder, greater life that these musicians occupy off the screen, and how lucky for Marty to be able to capture even a little insight. They are larger than life itself, and even in the mundane they pop. Some of the humour comes from Reiner simply extending the documentary's boundaries, and pretending as if this was a completely normal venture. Marty asks, very solemnly, if the current Spinal Tap drummer Mick Shrimpton is afraid of the unfortunate fate of all the previous drummers, and Mick replies in turn, with all seriousness, that it was a legitimate issue that was discussed between them, as if he was talking about a missing tom- tom. Oh, and he's in the bathtub. Reiner also draws from another rather famous British band, in both style and content, and in a way that immediately produces contrast. A Hard Day's Night was one of the early mockumentaries that birthed an entire genre, and crafted a whole set of rules and guidelines from which concert films were to be made. They are all noticeably here, and Reiner freely exaggerates: the push-ins to the band's orgasmic expressions, the reaction shots of the (less than) ecstatic audience, the way the camera hurtles through backstage trying desperately to keep up with the mania of the crew. When Tufnel storms off in disgust after a particularly terrible show, see how we are immediately chasing after him, the frame bouncing with each step, and pausing for the full gravitas of the ugly stare-down. Who is causing the rift in Spinal Tap? None other than the Yoko Ono of their time, an earth- loving hippie who increasingly pushes her unwanted presence into the band's affairs. But Spinal Tap have been there and done that - their early, drug-fuelled hit (Listen To The) Flower People must be as flabbergasting as Lennon's I Am The Walrus. McKean, Guest and the rest of Spinal Tap are wild in the best way, given free reign to go haywire. They tap into a very specific and familiar persona of the rock star and all the glamorous, egocentric pretensions that come along with their music, and all the drama, backlash and toxic infighting that brings about their inevitable downfall (and comeback tour). All this, as the laws dictate, must be well publicised, and Reiner observes ever so diligently. The band is pompous, fired up from their brief success and thinking that no artistic boundary is beyond them. They hastily deflect any accusations or criticisms because such things are below their level. The critics may have been right - the White Album did have nothing on its cover, but even that is not so absurd as the excessively graphic content of Smell the Glove. Their other albums have similarly humorous titles. Some are simply two phrases stuck together - Shark Sandwich, Robotic Armchair, Cerebral Badger. You get the idea.They think themselves poets, and resort to more and more desperation in order to win back their audience. Reiner produces his funniest scenes when he points towards just how insecure and vulnerable Spinal Tap really are. When challenged on the fact that most of their fans are clueless teenage boys, they retort that it is their primal masculinity that draws the envy (and fear) of both sexes. Later, a timid Derek Smalls is caught with a tinfoil- wrapped cucumber in his pants, left standing there humiliated. The climax is the reveal of the tiny Stonehenge statue, derailed by a hastily drawn napkin diagram. Reiner doesn't stray an inch; he shows the conventional shots, the passion, the feverish crowd, the dazzling lights, and then just lowers the model and lets Spinal Tap react and fall apart. And yet they are not arrogant to the point of dislike. We chuckle as they get second billing to a puppet show, and feel a little sorry when things out of their control cripple their last ditch efforts. So when Tufnel bursts back onto the stage for the teary reunion, we laugh at the sheer absurdity of the timing of it all, but at the same time we are also cheering them on and lining up for the comeback tour.

... more