Clever Idea Badly Done

Rating: 5/10 (19 June 2004)

THIS IS SPINAL TAP a mock documentary ( Mockumentary ) where the audience are fooled into thinking they`re watching not very well known British rock band Spinal Tap touring the United States in 1982 . There`s actually a spark of genius to this and considering the director has understated things and the rock trio - Who are played by American actors - have totally convincing English accents there was every chance that someone watching this on its intial release would be fooled into thinking Spinal Tap were actually a real rock band , in fact it might have taken years for someone watching this to cotton onto the fact they`ve been fooled . If that`s the case why oh why do the production team shoot themselves in the foot by casting Patrick Macnee in something like the third scene of the movie ? Macnee is still very well known in the States via his role in THE AVENGERS and the penny must have dropped that this movie was a spoof by viewers who`d remember him and the movie also contains several well known faces in the cast . Talk about shooting yourself in the foot
The more you realise this the more you realise it`s this that ruins the movie . If they`d cast totally unknown people we`d have seen people go into record stores asking if they`ve got Smell The Glove by Spinal Tap ( Actually the music isn`t that bad ) only to be met with a confused look and we`d have to write :
!!!!!! MAJOR SPOILER !!!!!

THIS IS SPINAL TAP is a spoof documentary
!!!!! END SPOILER !!!!!
in our reviews and I can`t help wondering how much better this movie would have been if it had fooled everyone . As it is I don`t think it deserves to be in the IMDB top 250