STILL the best mockumentary of all time; Best in Show(2000) by most of the same actors is merely a distant second. 10/10. Baby spoilers.

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2003)

`We don't....we're....we're not university material.'
Just get the Special Edn right now-if you don't, you'll be missing half the movie. Literally. The half that was deleted for theatrical release is every bit as good, and fresh, as the half that was kept.
The actors' talents will blow you away. Not only do Michael McKean as David St.Hubbins and Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel have impeccable East-Ender English accents (tragically, Harry Shearer's accent as Derek Smalls keeps slipping back into his real Yank), but the actors pick up their old-pair-of-jeans personas 16yrs later for the audio commentary.

It's as if Spinal Tap never `retired'.
`In the 1990s the fictitious group reunited for a series of concerts and a TV special' (Leonard Maltin). Naturally, for years I thought Tap were a real band: with an authentic logo, a 1980s white-trash-rocker-look with long, heavy-metal hair, skeleton-emblazoned sleeveless T-shirts and lurid lycra hotpants, they're indistinguishable from real rockers of the day.

They even nail a 1960s soundalike clip, 'Listen to the Flower People'. Shame we never see its follow-up song, 'Again with the Flower People'-its title alone implies hilarity. During DiBergi's `rockumentary', Tufnel also plays a gorgeous, tinkly `Mach' piano solo, which he has unfortunately called 'Lick my Love-Pump'.
All their video clips are credible, except for 'Stonehenge' (St.Hubbins' defense is to blame their manager: `...but you're not as confused as Nigel-are you?').
It was a lot of fun getting fooled, but discovering it was all bogus makes them seem all the more talented, and hilarious!
Their very first drummer, John 'Stumpy' Peeps (Ed Begley Jr) supposedly died `in a freak gardening accident'. His replacement died by choking on vomit. `Actually, he choked on someone else's vomit', adds Tufnel in a DiBergi interview. During their Flower People period Peter 'James' Bond apparently `exploded on stage' in a green puff of smoke. His replacement also `exploded'. 'Tap now think they despatched something like 37 drummers over the years.
The boys are indeed screamingly funny (listen closely to the dialogue). Infuriatingly, Leonard Maltin thinks they aren't funny enough, despite calling their effort `cunning satire'. Their humour is extreme improv, which cannot afford too many over-the-top lines, lest it jeopardizes our suspension of disbelief!
Spinal Tap are dopey repulsivos narcissistically convinced of their own relevance. The actors play them completely straight, which requires timing that never slips up. Mockumentaries take enormous discipline and talent. Clearly McKean, Guest & Shearer could do St.Hubbins, Tufnel & Smalls till the cows came home. (There's about an hour's worth of additional 1984 footage on the Special Edition DVD; plus the brand new audio commentary recorded 16yrs later).
The director of the `rockumentary', Marty DiBergi (actually the co-writer of the script, the songs, actor, and also the real director, Rob Reiner), remains admirably skeptical in reporting Tap's comprehensive lack of success during their comeback tour of America, ie now that their appeal has become `more selective'.
He probes their pasts, asks the relevant questions, and reads out `published reviews' of their previous albums:
*'Intravenus DeMilo': `The tasteless cover is a good indication of the lack of musical invention within. The musical growthrate of this band cannot even be charted; they're treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry', to which the boys retort, `That's nitpicking!'
*'Shark Sandwich': `This had a 2-word review. Sh!t sandwich.'
DiBergi then goes on to observe that `the makeup of your audience seems to be young...boys'. St.Hubbins+Tufnel explain: `Well, it's a sexual thing, really. Aside from the identifying the boys do with us, there's also a reaction of the female(s) to our music....' Tufnel: `Really, they're quite fearful. They see us on stage, with tight trousers; we've got, you know, armadillos in our trousers!....it's quite frightening, the size; and they run, screaming' (watch McKean almost lose it for real at Guest's `armadillo' improv).
Tap's litany of embarrassing stage accidents (over&above the despatched drummers) include Nigel overextending backwards and getting stuck; their stage-effect `pods' seizing up with Derek inside while stagehands feverishly hammer away; and sound interference from an airbase transmission tower. But the never-to-be-forgotten CLASSIC is when the band gets lost underground, trying to find the stage door. Of course, this scene has since been paid homage by legitimate bands such as The Rolling Stones, admitting the same thing happening to them in real life!
The list of cameos includes Fran Drescher as Bobbie Flekman the Polymer Records hostess; Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal as mime waiters in whiteface (backstage, Crystal, the head waiter, in an apparently throwaway role, bosses the unrecognizable Carvey around with `Mime is money! Move it!'); Patrick MacNee as Sir Dennis; Crystal's real-life friend Bruno Kirby as that limo driver enamoured of Frank Sinatra; Joyce Hyser from Just One of the Guys as Brenda the brunette groupie; Anjelica Huston as the Stonehenge modelmaker; and as mentioned, Ed Begley Jr as 'Stumpy' Peeps.
No `rockumentary' would be complete without the obligatory group breakup, hysterical tantrums and overbearing girlfriends; but Tap's level of talent and commitment seems to prick the bubbles of all heavy-metal bands.
The credits roll-at 1hr:16mins-much too soon, because the movie is still going. DiBergi is still interviewing them, asking, `Do you feel your music is racist?' St.Hubbins and Tufnel rebuff this with `No, 'course not, we say `Love your brother'-well, we don't say it, really'; `...We don't literally say it...we don't literally mean it...'-a line that always slays me. THIS line is MY fav., not Maltin's one about the amplifier dial that `goes up to 11'-which for me is only the 2nd-funniest.
TiST still reigns as the Mother of All Mocku(rocku)mentaries, with its seamless, screamingly funny `cunning satire'.(10/10)