Oldie moldy cult classic

Rating: 5/10 (5 November 2003)

This is...not as funny as it once was, unfortunately. And frankly, considering all that has come to past in rock and roll, it seems a little tame, even a little on the lame side. Or perhaps I have grown too jaded. Since Rob Reiner dreamed up this "pseudo-rockumentary" (after affixing some gold paint strategically on the USS Coral Seas baseball cap he wears--one of the many sight gags in the movie) the satirical assault on rock culture as been done and done again, perhaps a time or two too many.
The music itself is, shall we say, derivative with the Stones, some early Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and others having some distant unavoidable influence, while the unwashed antics of the stars both on stage and off have become clichés of the biz. Worse yet, satirizing the documentary mode itself has been done to death.
Alas, can we have back those moments of splendor in the grass (Wordsworth) or when we first leaned back in the movie theater, the smell of rancid popcorn butter in our nose, and sticky soda corn syrup on the soles of our shoes, and got blasted away by Spinal Tap? No, Virginia, you can't go home again, sad to say.
Might as well jump (Van Halen, 1984).
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)