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Dom Robinson reviews

This Is Spinal Tap

Distributed by

Cat.no: 74321 65027 2
Cert: 15
Running time: 79 minutes
Year: 1984
Pressing: 1999
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 44 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Widescreen: 1.75:1
16:9-enhanced: No
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 5
Price: £15.99
Extras : Scene index by song, quote or location

Director:

The American President, Ghosts From The Past, Stand By Me, The Sure Thing, When Harry Met Sally

Producer:

Karen Murphy

Screenplay:

Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner and Harry Shearer

Music:

Cast:

David St. Hubbins: Michael McKean (Airheads, The Brady Bunch Movie, D.A.R.Y.L., Planes Trains & Automobiles, The Return of Spinal Tap, Short Circuit 2, Small Soldiers, TV: "Dream On", "Friends", "Saturday Night Live", "Star Trek: Voyager", "The X-Files")
Nigel Tufnel: Christopher Guest (A Few Good Men, Little Shop of Horrors, The Princess Bride, The Return of Spinal Tap, Small Soldiers, TV: "Saturday Night Live", "St. Elsewhere")
Derek Smalls: Harry Shearer (EDTV, The Fisher King, Godzilla, A League Of Their Own, My Best Friend's Wedding, The Return of Spinal Tap, Small Soldiers, Speechless, The Truman Show, Wayne's World 2, TV: "Chicago Hope", "Dream On", "ER", "Friends", "The Simpsons", )
Marty DiBergi: Rob Reiner
Plus cameos from Bruno Kirby, Ed Begley Jr., Danny Kortchmar, Fran Drescher, Patrick Macnee, Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Howard Hesseman and Anjelica Huston.

This Is Spinal Tap is a spoof 'rockumentary' about heavy metal band Spinal Tap, fronted by David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls, who are planning their big comeback tour to coincide with the release of their latest album, Smell The Glove, which starts off with a controversial sleeve design but ends up with... well, you'll have to see that one for yourself.

If you haven't heard of this film, then you must have been crawling under a rock for the last 15 years as it features some classic scenes and oft-quoted one-liners, namely David's girlfriend mistaking the 'Dolby' in Dolby Stereo as 'Dobly', Nigel Tufnel complaining about a buffet backstage and how impossible it is to fold bread, the downsizing of Stonehenge during a concert, the pod problems that beset Derek at another and Nigel's amplifier which goes "one louder" because it goes all the way to 11.

I do have some reservations about the picture quality though. Firstly, there are some noticeable artifacts throughout the film which aren't so bad during brightly-lit scenes, but do show up during the rest, which makes one wonder how come the average bitrate is a high 7.32Mb/s. Also - and this is rather bizarre - the picture is slightly stretched sideways to the point where it's very obvious. At first I thought there was something wrong with my set-up as if I'd altered the mode of my widescreen TV but it wasn't. If you watch the film on a PC screen via a DVD-ROM drive, you can adjust the picture on the monitor so it looks normal. Alas, this makes no difference to the picture on a TV, but after putting on another tried-and-tested DVD I wasn't getting the same effect so I realised it wasn't me. Equally odd is the fact that the widescreen image is not centred in the middle of the screen, but below-centre.

The film is not presented in anamorphic format, a process which provides extra resolution for those watching on widescreen televisions and is usually only an option for films with a ratio of 16:9 (1.77:1) or wider, but has been employed on Warner's The Nightmare Before Christmas, directed by Tim Burton, which had a ratio of 1.66:1 resulting in black bars all round, albeit not that noticeable for those with standard televisions which suffer from the usual amount of overscan. This Is Spinal Tap has a ratio of 1.75:1, which could quite as easily have sat within the 16:9 frame, thus solving the off-centre problems, but this option was not taken.

The sound on the disc is a lot better though, the surround sound presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, which is clear for the classic lines of dialogue and comes to life during the loud rock songs such as Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You, Big Bottom, Hell Hole, Sex Farm and the one with the aforementioned set design-fault, Stonehenge.

Extras :

Chapters :

One of the plus points for this disc is that there are 44 chapters covering the 79 minutes of film, which must mean that this DVD has the highest number of tracks-per-minute than any other released in the UK. There are a number of ways to access your favourite moment from various menus, depending on whether you choose by the song, quote or location. A main chapter selection screen would have been a useful addition though.

Languages & Subtitles :

The film is in English only, but subtitles and onscreen lyrics would have been a nice idea. There are separate lyrics screens as part of the chapter selection process, but you can't read those while you're watching the film...

Biographies :

Alas not about the prolific main actors onscreen, but biogs about their characters with an additional about the fate of the drummers who came and went.

Menu :

The interactive menu is simple and effective. It is also animated in a subtle fashion, but silent. You can't skip past the copyright info at the start, unless you've already bookmarked a scene in which you can instantly access that part.

Overall, this is a great comedy which should be seen by everyone, especially in widescreen format and this DVD is the only chance for UK consumers to experience this. However, the presentation lets it down mainly with the aforementioned picture problems. There's some nice ideas with the chapter selections, but the amount of extras pales in comparison to that offered in the USA.

While the Criterion DVD contains an audio commentary and a handful of other extras including a trailer, the $100 NTSC Laserdisc set comprises of two full second-audio-track commentaries by Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, Kame Murphy (producer) and editors Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda. It also includes over an hour of deleted scenes, original industry and theatrical trailers, a 20-minute demo reel "Spinal Tap: The Final Tour" and other material.

Here's hoping for a remastered, anamorphic UK Special Edition that's not only "one louder", but also more than one better.

FILM	 		: ****
PICTURE QUALITY 	: **½
SOUND QUALITY		: ****
EXTRAS			: *½
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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