This Is Spinal Tap Reviews

Hilarious pseudo-documentary spoof of a British rock group that was so on-target in its satire, many viewers took it for the real thing. Spinal Tap is an aging British heavy metal band who are limping their way across the US while Marty DiBergi (Reiner) makes a "rockumentary" film about them. (Reiner is a Yank who has been following the group since they burst onto the scene 17 years before. Now that they're fading, he decides to tell their story rather than make some commercials for Wheat Thins.) Every disaster that can befall a rock group happens to Nigel Tufnel (Guest), David St. Hubbins (McKean), and Derek Smalls (Shearer). Management woes, promotional difficulties, nonexistent hotel accommodations, phony business people, props that don't work, and an album that hasn't yet been distributed in the stores, all add up to major problems. The American cast make pretty convincing English rockers, and the album-of-the-film, "The Best of Spinal Tap," became a hit in Japan. In 1992, the group became the stuff of pop-culture legend, releasing a follow-up album, "Break Like the Wind," completing a national tour of the US, and even appearing in animated form on hit Fox TV show "The Simpsons."