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This Is Spinal Tap

Play trailer 1:26 Poster for This Is Spinal Tap R Released Sep 8, 1984 1h 22m Comedy Music Play Trailer Watchlist
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96% Tomatometer 74 Reviews 92% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
"This Is Spinal Tap" shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts, including everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, along with the full host of requisite groupies, promoters, hangers-on and historians, sessions, release events and those special behind-the-scenes moments that keep it all real.
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This Is Spinal Tap

This Is Spinal Tap

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Critics Consensus

Smartly directed, brilliantly acted, and packed with endlessly quotable moments, This Is Spinal Tap is an all-time comedy classic.

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Critics Reviews

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Ed Potton The Times (UK) Rob Reiner’s mockumentary deserves plaudits for the British accents alone. Aug 29, 2023 Full Review Yardena Arar Associated Press Reiner, with McKean, Guest and Harry Shearer, have done a great job in creating and portraying characters that are dimwitted, cliched and yet oddly endearing. Oct 23, 2018 Full Review Variety Staff Variety For music biz insiders, This Is Spinal Tap is a vastly amusing satire of heavy metal bands. Mar 26, 2009 Full Review Al Alexander Movies Thru the Spectrum Unlike the rock band it celebrates, “This Is Spinal Tap” has aged incredibly well. In the 41 years since its release, it remains spry, relevant and deliciously cheeky. A film, if you will, that cranks it up to 11 on the amplified scale of comedic bliss. Rated: A- Jul 5, 2025 Full Review Grant Hermanns Screen Rant There's no denying that Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap is still a hilarious classic, but there is one glaring problem that keeps it from perfection. Rated: 8/10 Jul 5, 2025 Full Review Bill Newcott The Saturday Evening Post (Blending) the earnest hagiography of Martin Scorsese’s "The Last Waltz" with the irreverent satire of Eric Idle’s "The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash," Reiner’s ingenious bit of alchemy yields, some argue, the greatest rock and roll film ever made. Rated: 4/5 Jul 5, 2025 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Mason M As both an avid film lover and a rock and roll lover, This is Spinal Tap was a cheap satire and a badly made film. Though I like him as an actor, I don't like Rob Reiner as a director. He often works with good scripts, but his direction always feels dry and lifeless. This showed Rob Reiner's direction, this time with a bad script. Spinal Tap does have its fair share of strengths, the concert scenes were well done and it was pretty funny. It was funny in a technical sense, the jokes were good. But I didn't find myself laughing a single time in this film because the characters are so poorly written, they don't have a lick of personality written in that distinguishes one character from another. And for me at least, for humor to work, I need to be able to know the characters and what they would do in a situation. But this film gave me absolutely no character development or personality to latch onto. And the film's satire of rock and roll never went anywhere under the surface and just relied on tired cliches and stereotypes about rockers. Good satire makes interesting points about what it's talking about and gets one to think, but this has absolutely nothing interesting or new to say about rock and roll and just felt like a cheap mockery of a beloved genre. And Spinal Tap ultimately feels like a good film where they edited out the scenes with character development and intellectual satire until it just became a half baked series of jokes. This is Spinal Tap is just a series of gags that doesn't put the work into the characters or plot to make those jokes work. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/09/25 Full Review Alpha B Hadn't seen it in years so I went to see it at the theatre. Funniest movie I've seen all year. Hollywood just doesn't make good comedies anymore. Timeless classic Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/07/25 Full Review M B Original, beyond hilarious fake rock documentary. Writing, casting and execution are flawless, it's totally believable. So true it's funny. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/07/25 Full Review Nick M C'mon .... everyone needs to see this at least once. I'd give it an 11. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/07/25 Full Review alan g It wasn't good the first time. Why do it again? Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 07/02/25 Full Review Sam R Great humour, such a classic! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/02/25 Full Review Read all reviews
This Is Spinal Tap

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This Is Spinal Tap

This is Spinal Tap 41st Anniversary: Exclusive Movie Clip - This Goes to 11 This is Spinal Tap 41st Anniversary: Exclusive Movie Clip - This Goes to 11 0:52 View more videos
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Movie Info

Synopsis "This Is Spinal Tap" shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts, including everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, along with the full host of requisite groupies, promoters, hangers-on and historians, sessions, release events and those special behind-the-scenes moments that keep it all real.
Director
Rob Reiner
Producer
Karen Murphy
Screenwriter
Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, Harry Shearer
Distributor
MGM
Production Co
Spinal Tap Prod.
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy, Music
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 8, 1984, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
Jul 5, 2025
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 3, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$188.8K
Runtime
1h 22m
Sound Mix
Surround, Stereo, Dolby Stereo
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