"But These Go To 11..."

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2005)

I know it is boring to give all of the aspects of the movie "A's," but I liked this movie so much, I had no other choice. During the height of heavy metal hair bands in the mid-1980s, the American public was ready for a documentary detailing the lives of "Britain's loudest band," Spinal Tap. What one has to realize, of course, is that Spinal Tap is made up of 3 comedic actors who have spent time on Saturday Night Live, Laverne and Shirly, and The Simpsons, some of them all 3. Michael McKean, Lenny on L&S, plays lead singer David St. Hubbins, Christopher Guest, later a director of Best In Show and A Mighty Wind, plays lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel, and Harry Shearer, portrayer of many characters on the Simpsons (Monty Burns, Principal Skinner, etc.) is bass player Derek Smalls. The focus of the movie is how a band of rockers who were at the top of the world deal with sagging popularity and lagging record sales. The movie, directed by Rob Reiner, is entirely improve and features cameos of stars before they were stars: Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Fran Dreisher, Fred Willard, and Letterman band leader Paul Schaffer. Most of the memorable scenes are based on setup. The band appears to be clueless on simple things in life at the start of the movie, but confirmation comes in the middle of the movie when the stage is hard to find at one of Tap's gigs. Another involves the band wanting to spice up their shows with a huge replica of Stonehenge, but the results are pure comedy. As silly as the movie is, the audience really roots for these hapless music makers. The end of the movie is uplifting, well as uplifting as a movie about heavy metal can be, and there is a sense as even when Spinal Tap is down, they still love what they are doing.