Mockumentary and Improvisation

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2014)

It's 1982. Filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) follows the comeback tour of legendary British heavy metal band Spinal Tap (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer) in America.
Director Rob Reiner started something special here. This form of mockumentary with improvisation may have been done earlier, but Christopher Guest would take it to all new heights. Along with Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Rob Reiner, they push the comedy genre to unknown territories. The fact is the jokes are so densely packed and coming out of everywhere that it could be watch over and over again. The improvisation leads to an uncontrolled feeling to the comedy, and a realism that was probably unintended. Unlike other spoofs like Airplane or Naked Gun from Zucker, the jokes aren't machine gun fired. The improvisation lend itself to be uneven and jazzy in nature.