Reiner Nails It

Rating: 8/10 (19 August 2012)

Who would have thought that the meat head from All in the Family would turn out to be such a good director. Norman Lear must have rubbed off during his days on the set of that classic series. Here we have a documentarian, Marty DiBergi(Reiner), following Spinal Tap, a rock band, as they tour to promote their latest album, Smell the Glove. Two childhood buddies, David(Michael McKean) and Nigel(Christopher Guest) are the founders of the group, and they tell Marty of their journey to rock and roll fame. The third man to join them is bass player, Derek (Harry Shearer). The drummers have died in a series of unusual deaths, including spontaneous combustion on stage, and an unexplained gardening accident. The three lead actors are hilarious, and the script, right on target. The funniest moment for me is when Marty is interviewing guitarist Nigel about his amplifier, and the musician explains that his amplifier has a knob which goes to eleven. Asked why not just make eleven the number ten, the rock man looks bewildered, as he says that he sometimes need the higher number for that little extra. The foursome is shown playing to smaller and smaller crowds, as their album tanks. They come up with all kinds of schemes to increase ticket sales. The music is awful, reminding me of Kiss; all stage gimmicks, to cover up a lack of talent. Riner gets it right.