THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984, Blu-ray released July 28, 2009 – MSRP $34.99)
I have no idea how many times I’ve seen This is Spinal Tap. A million times maybe? Probably five-million or something. Anyways, I’ve seen it a lot. But I’ve never seen it look as good as it does on MGM‘s new Blu-ray disc.
Here’s the deal. This is Spinal Tap was shot on a shoe-string budget. The performances almost completely improvised. The camera always on, shooting on the cheap. The result is something wild and dirty, a film full of energy and life that’s never going to look clean and crisp on Blu-ray disc like an Iron Man or a The Dark Knight. What you get here appears to be every bit of film information that could be captured on a Blu-ray disc in 1080p, at a very high bitrate. I believe this disc looks as good as Spinal Tap can probably look. Is EVER going to look. I’m not sure how much better this could be, in terms of picture quality.
Maybe…none more better?!
…as Nigel Tufnel might say.
Spinal Tap was really the first of its kind, a “mockumentary”. A fake documentary. The story of a film director (Rob Reiner playing himself as character Marty DiBergi) supposedly following a British rock band’s big comeback tour in America as they fumble about, bung up their album release and nearly break up. The reality of the film is that it’s three American comedians pretending to be British rock stars, writing and performing their own music in a film which reaches cult status, which then leads to the actors becoming actual rock stars as a result. It’s been quite a ride for actors Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. And the Blu-ray almost brings you up-to-date with them and Tap.
This is Spinal Tap comes to Blu-ray in a two-disc set, the first of which mimics the 2000 MGM DVD in almost every way. That’s right fans, no Criterion bonus features to be found here (The old, discontinued 1998 Criterion issue DVD, a copy of their 1994 Laserdisc release contained two different commentary tracks, a host of alternate deleted scenes, the original Spinal Tap short film and a host of other extras not found here.) Instead, you get an “in-character” commentary track by the actors, 70 minutes of deleted scenes (!), a new short film, trailers, TV spots and appearances and more. I’ve owned the Criterion disc for years and really enjoy listening to the actors and the director discuss the making of the film in relatively serious terms. To be honest, I was dreading listening to the performance track found here. To my delight, it’s actually pretty funny! I almost spit orange juice out of my nose while listening. Seriously!
The only real disappointment for me here is in the second disc. It’s a DVD. And it features only two short extras: a 2007 Live Earth performance by the band and some National Geographic Stonehenge promos. What a waste of a disc! Am I to believe that this 15 minutes of footage wouldn’t fit on the 50 gigabyte Blu-ray disc?! I mean, I’m happy to have this content but I feel like MGM should have either crammed it on the Blu-ray or gone all out and filled the second disc with more bonus content. How about a whole live Tap concert? Or even the rest of their Live Earth performance? For a taste of what other content might have been included, just head over to YouTube and enter in the words “Spinal Tap Live”. It’s crazy.
Read our full rundown of all the special features and disc details here: Spinal Tap Blu-ray Re-Announced for July Release
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