Director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) solemnly alerts us to the glory that was Spinal Tap in his introduction to this "rockumentary" about the legendary British heavy-metal group, featuring lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and a succession of drummers whose careers were cut short by spontaneously combusting on their stool, drowning in somebody else's vomit, or otherwise perishing in untimely fashion. Under DiBergi's studious interrogation, the band and their familiars retrace the band's evolution from head-bopping Mersey Beat poseurs to head-banging metal poseurs, each change in musical direction or tonsorial chic having little effect on the surviving trio's sublime idiocy. For, as St. Hubbins (he's the "deep" one, relatively speaking) sagely observes, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

Funny stuff!

This is an amazingly funny DVD. Alot of the humour could only be understood by musicians...
I wet myself through this movie, not once did I get bored, original stuff, far beats any other movie of its kind.

Why non-fans should buy/try Spinal Tap

It's a smart, funny, witty film....and the music is not bad either. I've had this dvd for years now and i've watched it and listened to it dozens if not hundreds of times. It's great to watch or just put on in the background and listen to. Easily falls into the category of "great value for your money" as you'll be enjoying it over and over again. You'll get the great feature(mockumentary about a British metal group that has parallels to the Beatles and others), lots of extras(including an hour of extra footage and 4 music videos), and the biggest reason a non-fan/new-comer/or "wondering if i should see it or not" person should buy this...the audio commentary with the 3 leads in character as Spinal Tap.

The audio commentary is as funny and clever as the movie itself. Even if you've seen the film before and thought "eh, it was alright"(although i would find it hard to believe that someone would think it's just 'alright'), the group commentary as the band is simply one of the most entertaining commentary tracks available on any dvd. In a way, it's like having a Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of the movie as the group takes jabs at the documentary and accuses its director of doing a hatchet job on them. Absolutely hilarious. Spinal Tap fans won't need convincing, but i hope this review of the dvd will help persuade a non-fan to really give this movie(and esp this dvd version) a chance.

No, they're not real, but funny, really funny...

After watching another Christopher Guest related `mockumentary', which Guest directed ("Waiting for Guffman"), and learning Spinal Tap is actually not a real band, I felt fully prepared to watch this highly acclaimed comedy about the supposed band.

Thankfully I was not let down by Criterion, or all of the raving fans of this film, because the film was hilarious. From the beginning to the end, this pseudo-band creates an atmosphere that is entirely too funny to be treated seriously, and that is exactly what Reiner intended.

For example, Spinal Tap is about to perform, but they get lost backstage. Not all that funny? Well, first it is not just a little lost, but just watch and see the comments they make while lost. I mean Spinal Tap is just ridiculous, and this is shown repeatedly.

So all I can say is trust those who say this is great, because although some may be surprised by that deduction, the movie truly is terrific.