Silly situations made to be serious.

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2012)

I vote this film highly, I have caught bits and pieces over the years on TV but had never had the chance to actually watch it. And I grew up in the 80's.
I thought most of my younger years that Spinal Tap was a real band. I was only about 7 years old when this came out, so please forgive me. I sat down to watch this, and realized, no they are not real, and yes it is very funny how Rob Reiner takes previous films like Led Zepplin's "The Song Remains the Same" documentary film, and turns it on it's head. Especially when the lead singer in this film tries to do the Jimmy Page and instead of a violin bow on a guitar he actually takes a whole violin and uses it to play the guitar. This was hilarious, or when they try to sing popular tunes from other bands they always forget the words. I could go on and on.
This film captures most of all the rock documentaries that I have seen from Zepplin to the Rolling Stones documentaries, it's so interesting how Reiner captures that by the film grade and just the acting in general. This film is actually looks and feels like Depeche Mode 101 directed by D.A Pennebaker. But that film wasn't made until a few years after. But it's funny how close it is to this film, kinda creepy.
I'd say "This is Spinal Tap" is a very funny film in an indirect British humour kind of way. The humour is very subtle, and sometimes have to think about it. It's one of those films where you have to watch it multiple times and see something different every time. I love how the film goes from the band being very popular to playing concerts to a smaller and smaller audience, this is another subtle thing I noticed.
Great film, I loved it too bad it took 35 years to get around to it. The only problem I have is that is was too short.