Playful mockumentary with just a whiff of smugness

Rating: 5/10 (20 July 2006)

Rob Reiner directed this self-amused mockumentary on an outdated glitter-rock group named Spinal Tap, whose members are unaware how far they've fallen out of favor. This material might have made for the perfect short; yet as accurate as many of the jokes and targets are, the one-note satirical routines do get stretched a bit thin. The straight-faced cast, in an early precursor to the Christopher Guest troupe of players, is sometimes riotous-sometimes not, though Reiner is very adept with this type of dryly silly, scrappy film-making and he has a lot of fun with it. For music-biz aficionados, this became something of a cult film. It's low-budget, and definitely low-brow, but there are some big laughs scattered about. ** from ****