Movies Worth Seeing

Why Spinal Tap Still Rocks: Dry Wit, Dumb Decisions, and Perfect Payoffs

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey everyone, and welcome to Movies Worth Seeing. Today we're doing something a bit different, and we're going to talk about a classic film, Spinal Tap. Addie had never seen this before. I've seen this a million times. I love Spinal Tap. And with the sequel coming out, I thought, what better time to rewatch the original? And tonight we did it. Addie, as a first-time viewer, what did you think of Spinal Tap?

SPEAKER_02:

It was funny, not what I expected. It is typically 80s and it's typically British.

SPEAKER_00:

What do you mean though, like when you're like typically British? Like what's that supposed to mean?

SPEAKER_02:

What is that supposed to mean? It's just super dry humor. Yeah. Slow like in the 80s. It is clay card jokes that are refreshingly surfacey. Like they're they're not trying to force any deeper meaning in things that are not needed. They're not going into complex that they're not going into complex characters. They're simple characters. Very simple characters. And a relative relatively simple situation. Not simple, it's high stakes, but it's simple because it's not complex. Emotionally, spiritually, all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just a band that's really like stupid. Shit. Yeah. Or a band that used to be good, but is just declined and has gotten smaller fan base and is struggling to make a final tour work.

SPEAKER_02:

And then make the stupider decision, the stupidest decisions you could ever make. Yeah. It's just like and even below average IQ person would still question their choices. And it's funny what you were saying is that actual rock artists came to them and was like, oh, that was actually a really good documentary.

SPEAKER_03:

Did that really happen?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I can totally see like Ozzy Osborne, Rest in Peace, or like any of those legendary rock stars just coming up to them and being like, Man, like the way you conveyed what we go through as musicians, man, that was beautiful. That was beautiful. And it is kind of funny because Spinal Tap were the originators of the Black album, and then Metallica ended up making the Black album uh one of their most controversial albums. So it is funny in a way that real musicians, real rockers would get ideas from Spinal Tap.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, which is that's what I'm saying. It's refreshingly simple. And you can see in a film, you can recognize trends that they set that early on. Like, for example, the Black Album, but also for future films. Like they made so many references that I'm like, hey, wait a second. Oh actually, no, this was made before. Thinking about it, uh, what was it? What was it? There were there were like two or three moments where like that's exactly copied in later films. It's like certain sayings, certain phrases. Fuck, sorry, I don't remember. It's okay, we'll come back to it.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's play a fun game. Top five favorite moments from Spin on Tap. Number five, eleven. Yeah, the amp going to eleven.

SPEAKER_02:

Amp going to it's like trying to talk logic into such a dumb person.

SPEAKER_00:

I just love the pause afterwards of like, well, why don't you make 10 louder and just make that the loudest? These go to 11. Like it's just it's perfect timing. It's perfect timing. Yeah, great moment. Love it, referenced a lot. Yeah. So then I'd love to know if like heaps of um like if guitar places ended up designing amps to go to 11, if that became like a hot thing to do after the movie, like ah fuck, now we've got to go to 11 instead of 10. Yeah, yeah. Cool. So that's number five. I'd say number four is the metal detector scene.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, that is so hilarious because it was set up so much earlier as well.

SPEAKER_02:

We're good, armadillos in our pants, and then he pulls out a cucumber and foil. Like, why do foil? Yeah, I didn't why why why do you have to wrap it in foil?

SPEAKER_00:

Like, I also love like Harry Shearer's delivery as he's trying really hard to avoid having to do it, having to expose his armadillo by you know, uh the security guards just probing more on like, do you have artificial limbs or anything? And she's like, and he's he's like, no, not that I know of. Like, and then finally, all the guys are in the background, like, yeah, just do it, just do it. And he just pulls out a yeah, love it.

SPEAKER_02:

I thought he would have like nipple piercings or something like that, yeah. Well, then she went down, it's like, oh, he probably has like a dick piercing. She's gonna have to show a dick and then like pull it out or something like that. But then he just flips out the fucking armadillo. Size thick. He takes out a cute. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Number three, what would number three be? Stonehenge. I think Stonehenge. Stonehenge was Stonehenge is a great moment because there's so much setup that goes into it and it's paid off beautifully. There's so many jokes that are paid off of this setup of just them trying their best to. I mean, first you've got the joke that this this long-lasting joke where it's like this band will focus on everything but the music. Yeah. Like the music is the the last thing they think to improve. So they think, oh, let's improve the stage presentation. Okay. We'll get first they were gonna dress up as animals, and then they were like, no, let's do Stonehenge. So one of them draws it on a napkin, and then the prop, the prop lady designs Stonehenge, but designs it as like 18 inch instead of 18 feet.

SPEAKER_02:

And I was really wondering how I thought that that's hilarious that that happened. But then I'm naive and expecting the characters to be smarter than they actually are, and I thought, they gotta work with it somehow. Like, maybe like a put in the front of the stage and like cast a big shadow or something like that to make it look bigger than it actually is. It just drop an 18-inch Stonehenge figurine at the top and get dwarfs to dance around.

SPEAKER_00:

And the way it's like lowered down in the background is just so perfect.

SPEAKER_02:

But the thing is, we're all blindsided by it either, because they hadn't seen it before. Yeah, they didn't know.

SPEAKER_00:

Fuck is that and also the manager like Ian thinking to himself, like, oh, this will fuck it. Let's just do it and I'll deal with it later. And afterwards, just being like, oh well, you know, like what are you gonna do? You you move on, kind of thing. You just roll with it.

SPEAKER_02:

And then they have this big fight about it in the in the in in the in the green room afterwards, and then Ian quits, the pr the production manager, he quits, and then you have the the bass player. Derek. Derek. I've got to ask a uh I can't do the bridge texts right now. I'm gonna ask a practical question.

SPEAKER_00:

Practical question are we gonna do Stonehenge tomorrow? No, we're not fucking doing Stonehenge tomorrow. No, we're not gonna fucking do Stonehenge.

SPEAKER_02:

It's great. It's it's great. Brilliant. Number two, direct lyrics from one of their songs. She has baby teeth. She's too young, and I'm too hung. Something like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Fucking hell.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, and it's just in a climactic moment of the whole thing where they're just the reunion of the singers. It's like it's such a hard problem. It's like come back on stage. Oh, from tonight I'm gonna rock you. Yes. Tonight I'm gonna rock you.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, I think a lot of the what?

SPEAKER_02:

So bad. You shouldn't you could never do that these days. Oh god. But it was a goal. It was gold slide in joke. It was so good.

SPEAKER_00:

It's also like that like sex farm. Like just what the fuck? And I I love that bit at the military base when they're just like the the drill sergeant or whatever is like, so if you guys could just play some slow numbers and then it's just a jump cut. Gold. Gold. And number one for me sandwich.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, the sandwich, the bread. It's an iconic scene. I've seen that scene before, even though I've never seen Spinal Tap. I've seen that scene.

SPEAKER_00:

So just the fact that you knew the scene means it's transcended because you knew the scene before you knew the movie it came about. Yeah, exactly. Brilliant. I mean, like as we were talking about, it's just the perfect combination of shots, acting, everything is just so perfect in that one scene. You've got a musician complaining about the stupidest shit while his band is like absolutely in the toilet, and there couldn't be more worse things going on. Gigs and con gigs are getting cancelled left and right, but yet for some reason, Nigel feels like he needs to make this complaint about the food.

SPEAKER_02:

But again, it's just a below average person could use enough logic to make this problem gone. You can rip the piece of meat, or you can just fold it, and characters just can't put two and two together.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's one of the best parts when Ian is saying to Nigel, like, well, why would you keep folding it though? Because he just keeps folding the bread with the salami and the close-up shots of him just folding it.

SPEAKER_03:

You know why I know this scene?

SPEAKER_02:

Because I think there is a blooper of this scene. I if I remember correctly, maybe I could be completely wrong and then cut this whole bit out. I think there's a blooper of this scene. Like they keep trying to do it, and they it's it's a it's filming about it's a little documentary thing about making this scene. And they keep on cracking up because it's such a stupid scene. It's so funny. But yeah, I think I've seen that. Okay. I think I've seen that. That's where I know it from.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, number one's the the bread. Definitely for me. I love the stone-faced Anne. Anne's facial expressions of like, are you for real? Is this really what we're gonna talk about right now? Fucking bread. But then he has to still comfort Nigel and be like, Look, look, I don't want this to ruin your performance. I'm a professional. Oh, rise above it. I'm a professional. Yes, yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_02:

Great. We have a couple of honorable mentions though. For moments, yeah. For moments are hilarious. Trying to play a guitar with the violin just stood out to me. It was just so fucking dumb. And then tuned the violin to go again.

unknown:

It's like what?

SPEAKER_02:

Another one is them getting lost in the backstage and like a full circle. And I'm like, this guy gets fucked. Wrong turn, let's go back. And then one more is just the introduction to all the characters where you seen I think it's Nigel. Nigel's one of the long hair, the one that quits the band. Yeah, it's tough. You see him just like on the stage, like with his tongue. How the fuck did he do that? It's just like that that little scene where you see the four of them together just playing the guitar, it just depicted every character exactly what you can expect from them for the rest of the film. I thought that was really well done. Fucking hilarious. You have four complete idiots next to each other, but they're all four different idiots. Yeah. I would I would classify those three as honorable mentions. Didn't make the top five, but really good. How about this?

SPEAKER_00:

Top five quotes.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I got one. Are you right? Should we do it together? Yeah, yeah, sure. Alright, I I think number five, less mime, more money. That's such an underrated mime is money. Sorry, mime is money. Mime is mum. Come on, come on, don't talk back. Mime is money. It's such an underrated line, and it's so clever. Like, why are there mimes serving food? It's brilliant. And the fact that Billy Crystal is the mime, like knowing what he would go on to become. Great. It's a great quote. And it yeah, it always gets a chuckle out of me, no matter how many times I've heard it. Number four, these go to 11. Yeah. Oh, but I also love when Nigel is showing off all of his guitars, and he's like, oh, you know, looking at it. This guitar's still got the old tagger on it, you know, it's never even been played. And he's arguing with the director. Don't don't touch it. Well, I'm touching it. I'm just pointing at it. I wasn't. I was just I was just pointing at it. Don't point at it. Well, don't point. All right. You've seen enough of that one, yeah? Yeah, don't even look at it. Let's move on.

SPEAKER_02:

Number three. I'm gonna restate my quad from before. What? She has baby teeth, she's too young, and I'm too hung. It's it it caught it blindsided me. It caught me off guard.

SPEAKER_00:

I think Big Bottom is a lyrical masterpiece. Oh yes. Talk about mud flaps, my girls got 'em. It's just brilliant. I've never heard such lyrical poetry. I think one Shakespeare would be proud. One quote that really stands out to me is um, you know, oh well, what do you call this beautiful kind of arrangement you've made? And it's like, oh, this is called lick my love pump.

SPEAKER_02:

Just lick my love.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a mark piece. Lick my love pump.

SPEAKER_02:

Fuck yeah. Again, blindsided, did not expect that. Yeah, yeah, they're setting up this beautiful. The thing that made that is so beautiful in this film is that they every time they set up this moment where you feel these characters are gonna rise above the situation, actually show like a bit more complexity to their personality. Every time, I don't know about you, but every time I fell for it. Like, for example, it's like this guy's like you had a D minor, it's the saddest note you can play, and it just brings everybody to tears.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's a musical musical trilogy. Yeah, it's like Beethoven and Buck. How do you what what are you gonna call it? Lick my love button.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's the brilliance of Spinal Tap is so many jokes are just given so much setup that you're just hanging off, like wondering like what where is this going? And then they just they just get you so well with the with the payoff with the punchline. Yeah, yeah, especially like it was such a treat watching you see it for the first time because I'm thinking to myself, like, uh this punchline's gonna get you so hard because you you don't know where it's gone. And I saw it with that one, that's why I liked it. Fuck, number one, hmm. You know what? I'm probably gonna go with Ian and Janine and Bobby. Bobby? Who's Bobby? Bobby Fleckman. So they're having a conversation about the album cover, and he's saying to her, why can't why can't we do the album cover? Like, what's the big deal? And then Bobby just goes through and is like, Ian, like, you put a naked, greased up woman, and she's got a leash on all fours, and a guy's shoving his hand into her face to smell the glass.

SPEAKER_02:

I really thought that sentence was gonna go to the other side.

SPEAKER_00:

Shoved his hand in her face. And like, uh, okay. Well, the other part was like, after you hear this horrible description of what the album cover was, Ian just going like, oh, you you should have heard the album they wanted to do. My Jesus.

SPEAKER_02:

I love I love how they got came back to that later, too. When they came across the other music, the other musician, the other Wanker, we had who did a similar thing on his and on his album cover. It's like, why can't he do that? Because he did it to himself. Like, oh he was the victim.

SPEAKER_03:

He was the victim. Their objection was she was the victim. Yeah, but he was the victim. See, it's a very clever twist. There's a very fine line between clever and stupid. Yeah, it's just shut the fuck up.

SPEAKER_00:

I like that they they take that moment to be like, oh, blah, like, oh, we missed that. Like, we could have done that. Oh, yeah. It eclipsed us. It was so it was so clever. We should have thought of that.

SPEAKER_02:

They're all like in awe of it and just I wish they they showed you the album cover too. Show it.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's funnier that they didn't show the album cover.

SPEAKER_02:

Because then it can only disappoint. Because the imagination of it is so good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, uh, like hearing Bobby just describe it, you're just like, oh my god. How much further is this gonna go?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Because that's right. You should have seen the album covered at one or two. It wasn't a glove.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Oh, so funny. Honorable mention also has to go to one of the best critic reviews of um Spinal Taps music. Marty, the the director, just sets it up perfectly. I've got this critic review for your album Shark Sandwich. Shark Sandwich. It's simply a two-word review. Just says shit sandwich. They're like, what? No way. No, we can't say that. That's not real. Where'd they print that? Where'd they print that? Yeah, that's that that's that crack you cracked up on that one. I always crack up on that because I just think it's so fucking funny.

SPEAKER_02:

Shit sandwich, that's one of them. That's actually one of those quotes I was thinking. It's like, it's such a quote you hear every everywhere now. Shit sandwich. Like it's it's a sales term. Or like not a sales term, it's a uh a teaching method, a shit sandwich. You give them something good, something to work on, and then something good again. It's called you call it a shit sandwich when you teach someone, right? I just like ah, but did they come up with that? It's just I don't know. It's kind of it's an analogy that that that I'd never heard before outside that context. It's like a shit sandwich.

SPEAKER_00:

I also find the setup really funny. Like, why the fuck did you make an album called Shark Sandwich? Like, what the fuck does that even mean? And then they show the album cover for it and it's a shark swimming in a sandwich. It's just like shark fits coming out of it on top. How has no one done that yet as an actual album? That's the that's the real question that we need to ask ourselves is it's right there. It's right there, and no one's done it.

SPEAKER_02:

It's already copyrighted now.

SPEAKER_00:

Potentially.

SPEAKER_02:

Another honorable mention is that there have been 37 members on this band. It's just like, what? And they're all like besides the three originals, like most of the drums. They're all the drummers. Yeah. And then at the very end, you just see the drummer explode, and a new drummer with a new title rocks up. It's like, what? And then you see him explode again in the background. It's just like, that's 39. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00:

Also, the interview with the drummer just been like, oh, you know that like being a drummer means that you're probably gonna die. Yes, law of average. Well, like I knew it was gonna happen. It's gonna happen someday. So I I just you know, I just go with it.

SPEAKER_02:

And then the interview was like, Yeah, but law of average is so it's probably not gonna be you, it's not gonna happen. It's like, no, no, you're right. Law of average is not gonna uh uh says I'm gonna be fine. Yeah. Being number 37. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So after watching Spinal Tap, would you definitely watch Spinal Tap 2?

SPEAKER_02:

I am curious to watch it. I I I I I thought it was funny, but I've never been a big fan of movies from like before the the the 2000. It's really yeah, I've never been a big fan of them. It's just like I can laugh about them. Don't get me wrong, like if we watched the original Naked Gun, it it'd be hilarious. But it's just such a different style of films that I've never been really into. I'm actually really curious about what Spinal Tap 2 will have to offer. Are they gonna follow the same structure of dry British humor that fits within that same era? Or are they gonna translate it to modern style humor?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And will it work? Yeah, I'm always curious to know like what jokes they'll try to still pull off. How many callbacks they'll do, you know, like is it just gonna be Happy Gilmore 2, where every single joke is just this is what we did in the original, and we're doing it again. In the trailer, I did enjoy little things like seeing them talking to drummers about like joining the band and and all these really famous drummers. So all these famous drummers like appearing and and spinal taps trying to ask them, like, hey, would you join the band? And they're just like, I don't want to die. Yeah, yeah. So that's clever. Yeah. What do you rate it out of five, Addy? What does a classic like spinal tap get out of five? Or do you go up to eleven? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I'm gonna rate it a six out of five.

SPEAKER_02:

My gut tells me a three out of five. Oh damn. Yeah, my gut tells me a three out of five, but it's very biased in the sense that my taste does not line movies from the 80s. Yeah. Right? I always struggle, just I'm more for the vibrant colors. And everything from the 80s is still like a bit of a grey tone, less quality, and I want like a super sharp images. And and it gives me a bit of it gives a complete different feeling.

SPEAKER_00:

There's so many colorful movies from the 80s.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but it's all there's always a great skill just because it was on film, it wasn't Kodak. And it gives a different film. And I Jeez, Tarantino would hate you. Oh, you can hate me all you want, I don't care, but just kidding, Quinton, you and I are buddies. Come to Tel Aviv. Well, uh we'll celebrate together, huh? He lives in Tel Aviv.

SPEAKER_01:

Does he? I think not Tel Aviv. Yeah, in Tel Aviv. Yeah, he lives there. Why? He has an Israeli wife.

unknown:

Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

She's hot?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm so curious now. No, she is she is she's beautiful. My dad is like you can they're on the street, a lot of them in Tel Aviv. You can just spot him. If he's not traveling around the world making films.

SPEAKER_00:

She's 41. Ah. Yeah, she's wow, she's really hot. Obviously. She's 41. How old is he? He is not 40. 60? Well done.

SPEAKER_02:

Be famous. Have a lot of money. And a lot of women will fall for you. Not all, but a lot will.

SPEAKER_00:

He's never married before.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, she's his first wife.

SPEAKER_00:

Good for him. You have kids, right? I'm so sick of hearing about like celebs that fucking get married 10 million times.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it's just stupid.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, if it didn't work the first time, like just fucking let it go.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it's not that. It's just the more modern culture that just lost integrity and acts on impulses. Yeah. They have a feeling and they want to connect to it. And it's just like, no. Like, Quinton's a bit older. He has a little bit more of a uh a traditional sense of commitment to family. And it's just like, no, cool. You you find out if this is the right person for you and you commit, fully commit to them, and you don't just act on your impulse, on the emotion of the moment. It's like, yeah, you're sure your puppy love for like a few months. Three months, that's your puppy love. But a lot of those celebrities already get in a full committed relationship, but sometimes even get married within the three months.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's just like come to Funk Town. Or even time to sign a fucking print up.

SPEAKER_00:

You know what I mean? Sorry?

SPEAKER_02:

Some some of them fucking get married within a week. Well, if you're in L if if you're in LA, you can do it. Las Vegas, sorry, you can do it. Who gives a fuck? Yeah, so but that aside. So your Quentin's gonna hit me. Your final rating on Spinal Tap. Three out of five. That's right, just because it's not my vibe. I like it these days when it's intentional, but for back in that era of filmmaking, it wasn't intentional on Kodak. There was just no other option. It was film or it was nothing. Now you have the option. So when you decide to go for codec, you do it for certain aesthetic experiences. And Christopher Nolan is a big fan of that. Though I really disliked Oppenheimer. Some of his other films on film. I do like it. So it's not necessarily the film, it's just the gray skills that and and and the lack of ability in preservation of quality. It's such a weird reason to give a three out of four. No, no, no. It's a classic movie. The whole thing just adds to the reason why I'm not into films from the 80s, 90s.

SPEAKER_00:

You're really missing out, man. That's a fucking great era. I know they're great, and I love so my so many movies from that era that I just keep going back to some to re-watch over and over. Because I never get tired of it.

SPEAKER_02:

And and I understand that. I do, and I see why Final St Spinal Tap is a great movie. I'm giving it I'm giving it a three out of five, not because of lack of quality, because for quality I would give it a four and a half out of five. It's just mixed in with my personal bias of of being it my style film. I'd reduce it to a three. So I'd give it the I'd give it the average, let's say a three and a half out of five.

SPEAKER_00:

My bias gives it a five out of five. I've seen this movie ten bazillion times, quoted it with my family countless times. So many jokes just always get a laugh out of me, no matter how many times I've seen it. I've listened to the songs from sometimes on Spotify. I'll just listen to the songs. On Spotify? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

100%. I'll put it on later.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll put it on tomorrow. I'll listen to Big Bottom fucking a million times. And tonight I'm gonna rock you and Stonehenge. They actually are good songs, even though they it's the lyrics are shit, but the songs are pretty good. Yeah, like it's the same with Walk Hard, another great film where it's making fun of the music industry and stuff. Yeah, you have all these like funny songs lyrically, but this they sound really great as well. And John C. Riley can actually sing, yeah, which helps. It does. He's got a great voice. So yeah, five out of five. I mean, it's just classic. You can't go wrong with Spinal Tap, honestly. It's I can watch it any mood I'm in and always find something new to enjoy about it. And it just takes you back to a simple time where like it didn't have to be 10 million like over-the-top fucking jokes thrown at you, but you could appreciate jokes being set up for like a really long setup for a huge payoff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Whereas like nowadays no one has the attention span or the patience, so they can't handle that. It's just gonna be set up joke, setup joke, setup joke straight away. Yeah, no, I agree. If you haven't seen Spinal Tap, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Like, go out and watch it. Yeah. And we will definitely watch the second movie and give you our review for that. So that's us, guys. Movie's worth seeing. Please like, share, and subscribe for more videos like this. Until next time, peace.