Rob Reiner and the Spinal Tap

 


     "These go to eleven..."     


     One of my favorite comedy movies is This is Spinal Tap (1984), a rock mockumentary that follows the American tour of Spinal Tap (a fictional heavy metal band). I’ve watched this film multiple times and I still find it funny each time. The film satirizes the “behavior and musical pretensions of rock bands.” This is Spinal Tap was critically acclaimed and is considered one of the funniest films ever, and was followed, 41 years later, by a sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025) with the same cast and writers, which is also very funny, though the first film, for me, is funnier. 

     The running joke about their drummers all dying and suffering bizarre deaths while with the band is hilarious. One of their drummers died when he choked on vomit… someone else’s vomit. Lol. And they weren’t able to find who owned the vomit. And their concert with the Stonehenge? Also uproarious. Incidentally, the three main characters (the band’s three members) were also the writers of both films.  

        Proof of the first film’s success was that the fictional band embarked on a real concert tour in America afterwards.

     This is Spinal Tap and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues were both directed by Rob Reiner, who also directed The Princess Bride (1987), A Few Good Men (1992), Misery (1990), When Harry Met Sally (1989, all brilliant films.

     Sadly and tragically, Rob Reiner, one of Hollywood’s successful and beloved directors and who was also an actor (he was the interviewer in both Spinal Tap films), and his wife, were found dead last December 14, brutally murdered, with their troubled son as the suspect.

     May they rest in peace.

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