This Is Spinal Tap

1984 mockurockumentary

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Advertisement director Marty DiBergi follows heavy metal rockers Spinal Tap on a fateful American tour in support of their latest album, Smell the Glove. Conflicts arise due to their waning popularity, management problems, artistic differences, and a lack of record label support.

You know the jokes are coming and can even quote them, but they still surprise and make you laugh. I'm a sucker for both the faux-documentary format and improvised comedy anyway, and this is the one of the best. It all comes naturally, nothing winding up too hammy or strained, so natural that somebody watching excerpts could easily be fooled into thinking it's legitimate. You've got to pay attention though. The first time I saw this movie with Wombat McClain, he wouldn't stop quoting lines before they came (he also wouldn't stop making sexual advances) so I was a little distracted. He also kept giggling in advance and spilling his plate of corn. This helps prove my theory that movies should almost always be watched alone. I do wonder what Wombat McClain is doing these days though. Probably listening to King Crimson and creeping people out! And eating corn, of course. Dude loved his corn.
This is not Wombat McClain, but it might as well be:

3 comments:

cory said...

Classic movie. A 17.

A Bunny said...

I am Wombat McClain, and I found this post recently looking for what sort of a trail I left on the internet.

Shane said...

Wombat! This is the best thing that's happened to me in 2013!

I reread this short post to see what I said about you. Thanks for not letting the cat out of the bag about you quoting lines or making sexual advances. You made sexual advances later, but it wasn't during the movie. And I know you didn't quote lines.

You probably are listening to King Crimson and eating corn though.

That's one of my favorite JBC memories, by the way--sitting at the cafeteria table and watching you sit down with a plate that had nothing but a giant mound of corn on it. I remember thinking, "My God! This guy must love corn!" It's seriously one of the highlights of my life.