Still true, Still the one

Rating: 10/10 (12 September 2002)

Has it really been 20 years?! I first saw this film when it was first
released on video 15 years ago. I was browsing in the Beta rental
store when my dad insisted that I rent Tap. I, like my friends, was
fairly immersed in the arena rock metal culture of the mid-80's, so I
accepted his suggestion and we brought it home. Now, being a
little metal kid, I hated the movie. I thought that the music I held so
dear was being mocked and relegated - another attempt by my
parents to subvert my love of the music that "parents don't
understand". A few years later I watched it again and realized that
my dad wasn't making fun of me, he was trying to show me how to
laugh at myself. I am a musician and have been professionally for
years now. I look back at that first viewing with a laugh now.
This Is Spinal Tap is so funny because it is not only funny as hell,
but a loving tribute to the culture of my youth. Every touring band
keeps a copy on the bus, every music fan can quote at least 50
lines from it, and I have now seen it more times than I can count. It
is the best of it's kind and the best mocumentary and best music
film of all time. If Mike McKean, Chris Guest, Harry Shearer and
Rob Reiner were not such huge music (and metal) fans, it could
never have been as clever and precise as it certainly is. You have
to own it because you have to see it 100s of times. You will find
something new every time, and the older you get the more you can
find in it. So much more than satire, so much more than comedy...
it is just brilliant. Period. Now hurry up and go see it again... mime
is money!