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Created Mar 18, 2013 08:11PM PST • Edited Mar 18, 2013 08:11PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   If I was teaching a college class in parodies, I would make this hilarious movie required viewing.

   Rob Reiner’s 1st movie as a director, it is a “mockumentary” about the fictional British hard rock group Spinal Tap.

   It manages to be a great parody of not only pompous rock documentaries that take their subjects way too seriously but also of British hard rock groups at the time. There is not one false note(pun intended) in the whole movie.

   If I can pinpoint what makes this movie work is that you get the sense that Reiner and the other writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer have a genuine love for the music. How many times have we scene spoofs of rock music that fail because there is a disdain for the subject. Such is not the case here.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   The three guys playing “The Tap” really nail it but the supporting cast is quite excellent. Watch for Billy Crystal as a supervising mime waiter, “Mime is money!”

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    The film really looks like a rock documentary and the music sounds like they are a real band, even though on repeated listening I’ve wondered if a real Spinal Tap could have gotten past the remainder bins. Doesn’t really matter as once you buy the premise you buy the movie.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.9

    Pretty tame for now but at the time some of the off color humor did offend some people.

17. Sex Titillating 1.9

18. Violence Fierce 1.9

19. Rudeness Salty 1.9

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0