This is Spinal Tap – Blu-ray Disc Review

July 29, 2009 – 6:38 pm - Posted by: Danielle Byington

Tags: Anjelica Huston, Billy Crystal, Brinke Stevens, Bruno Kirby, Christopher Guest, Dana Carvey, David Kaff, Ed Begley Jr., FOX, Fran Drescher, Fred Willard, Harry Shearer, Howard Hesseman, June Chadwick, Linnea Quigley, MGM, Michael McKean, Patrick Macnee, Paul Shaffer, Rob Reiner, Spinal Tap, Tony Hendra

has an average rating of 8.0 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
are mostly SD with a bonus DVD
–
– 1984
– 83 minutes
– MGM (FOX)
–
This uses 22.4GB for the movie out of 32.6GB total.

Overall Verdict – Sadly Doesn’t Go to 11

Buy it for $21.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Danielle Byington —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is directed and written by Rob Reiner, with the additional writing credits of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.

The story follows the mock heavy metal band, Spinal Tap, in their “come-back” tour in the United States as a hilarious parody of a rock documentary. Posing as the narrator, interviewer, and creator of the documentary is Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), who poses sincere questions to the band members about their tour, and musical past. Gathering up the guys for band interviews, primarily Nigel and David, Marty DiBergi poses questions that show us the childhood friendship of the two men, their beginnings during their “Flower People” era, and the difficulties faced with drummers who keep dieing the most random deaths.

Within the not-so candid moments caught on camera of following the band around off-stage, we experience their suite parties, disapproval of their sexist album cover, the viral blisters shared upon the lips of the band members, Dereck‘s problematic metal detector test involving an aluminum foil wrapped cucumber in his trousers, and the interference of Jeanine, David‘s woman.

With the highly theatrical stage performances exhibited by the band, we are shown just what the guys are out to prove on their American come-back tour, with the saucy lyrics of “Big Bottom”, the less than becoming stage prop involved in “Stonehenge”, the questionable audience of males instead of females they tend to attract, and the canceling of big city shows, such as Boston, which, as told to the band by their manger, “is not a big college town”.

In closing,this film has its own cult following, being in the genre of “love or hate”, as there is not exactly a gray area for those with a taste for the comedy of “This is Spinal Tap“. It really works well as a feature length type-comedy, but you can also see the story’s roots as a sketch, spawning its get-go on “The T.V. Show“, of which Reiner was involved with. If you enjoy “SNL“-styled risky/dirty humor, you will certainly fin yourself laughing out loud at the “retarded sexual” lyrics of the fictional band’s music (such as, “Big Bottom”), as well as the somewhat ad libbed bizarre dialogue of the characters, including explanations of deceased former drummers, from a “gardening accident best left unsolved”, to “exploding on stage”. Overall, this film is its own random comical thing, earning a “4.5 Star Rating“.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte, dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Being a quarter of a century old, and originally being filmed using 16MM film, there is surely no expectation to be had that the video quality on this release is amazing; because, it is not. The picture is generally very soft, possessing a more fuzzy image within drab-lighting interior shots, as well as concert scenes that are campaigned by the extravagant stage lighting for the band’s ridiculous theatrical performances. The color palette offers moments of vibrancy and decent saturation, often in scenes composed of interviewing Spinal Tap, as seen in the beginning of the film, with intense shades of bright green foliage in the back ground, and the loud colors in the wardrobe worn by the guys; in some instances, however, these more vivid shades do tend to bleed a little bit within the lack of definition and fairly heavy film grain.

Fleshtones are pretty much pink through out, fluctuating in the intensity of said hue as scenes progress. The black level is definitely not solid, cutting it somewhat close to dark blue/gray, but yet even more soft in the concert scenes due to stage lighting. By all means, do not count on impressive definition in this release; it has certainly been showered and shaved since its prior releases, though is still quite a specimen of fuzziness. Just as mentioned before, some bold colors of the palette do tend to bleed a bit, and subjects of typical video regarding detail such as strands of hair and facial features are basically left to the imagination. Aside from its short comings, the video on this release is generally polished of artifacts, with a very sparse amount that pop up through out, and the dinginess of poorly lit scenes has been re-heightened displaying a slightly clearer picture. Overall, the video on this release is what it is, and will surely be more valued for its hysterical content rather than a sharp awing visual presentation (because there’s not one), receiving a “3 Star Rating“.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS HD 5.1 Master Audio. When discussing the audio track on this release, I have to quote Nigel Tufnel; “Listen to the sustain…“. A broad definition of sustain is “to endure a moment or experience”, that of which you will be doing upon sitting within the 5.1 setup conveying this rather impressive DTS track. The dialogue and all of its witty deliveries are captured and presented clearly from the center front channel, whether it is the interviews with Marty DiBergi and the band, or simply the antics captured by the “following” camera crew. The concert scenes are a huge part of the film, and the music actually makes a grand presence leaving no part of the soundscape to spare, with a bright and fulfilling Super Audio reminiscent exhibit of the band’s unique performances. Just as Nigel shows-off the receiver that goes to “11″, rather than “10″, just for that extra kick the band is looking for, this release’s audio track cuts it close to that plus-one-number, earning a “4.5 Satr Rating“.

Bonus Materials on this release are presented mostly Standard Definition, as well as High Definition (which will be noted), both of which use the MPEG-2 video codec, and using Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo for audio.

• “Audio Commentary by Spinal Tap“
• “Catching Up With Marty Dibergi” (SD, 5 minutes) consists of Rob Reiner portraying Marty DiBergi in the interview.
• “Rare Outtakes” (SD, 1 hour 8 minutes) includes 14 outtakes.
• “Vintage ‘Tap’ Materials” (SD, 4 minutes) includes “Flower People Press Conference” in black & white, and “Spinal Tap Appearance on ‘The Joe Franklin Show’“.
• “Music Videos” (SD, 12 minutes) includes 4 music videos, “Gimme Some Money“, “(Listen to the) Flower People“, “Hell Hole“, and “Big Bottom“.
• “Promotional Materials” (SD, 5 minutes) includes “Heavy Metal Memories“, the “Cheese Rolling Commercial“, and 3 TV Spots.
• “Commercials” (SD, 1 minute) includes 3 commercials for “Rock and Rolls”.

Bonus DVD Includes:

• “‘Stonehenge’ Performance at the 2007 Live Earth Concert” (HD, 7 minutes, 16×9) consists of the band’s live performance of their “Stonehenge” song from the movie, including the silly miniature Stonehenge and dancing Druids.
• “Nation Geographic Stonehenge Interview With Nigel Tufnel” (SD, 8 minutes, 16×9) includes Nigel showing how he turned marinara sauce into dirt with the frequency of a guitar.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Be PATIENT with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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