Return of Spinal Tap (1992)

The Return of Spinal Tap is based around Tap's performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 1992. In between the footage of Messrs. St. Hubbins, Tufnel, and Smalls performing in front of a huge crowd enthusiastically determined to go along with the joke, there are clips purporting to investigate the band's humble origins in the East London suburb of Squatney, and updates from "rockumentary" director Marty DiBergi and hapless record plugger Artie Fufkin from the original movie. It is the latter component that is the real strength of Return. Though the concert footage faithfully rehashes many of the film's most treasured jokes (the malfunctioning props, the dancing midgets), the real satirical strength of This Is Spinal Tap was never its treatment of heavy metal music (which, after all, is hardly a difficult target). What the first movie did best was illuminate the egomania, paranoia, delusion, and stupidity that are the cornerstones of rock & roll as it is lived. The Return of Spinal Tap is a worthy companion piece. --Andrew Mueller Amazon.com

Uneven and lacks coherence.

Basically a filmed concert. Interrupted by a few sketches. The whole idea of Spinal Tap is to paraphrase the rock-industry. Gently dressed as irony and general retardedness. The film was good. The lyrics are still very good (don't we just love sublime rock poetry?) but we have seen it before and better. The sketches are still quite good but to have the songs performed, in all seriousness, somehow detracts the whole concept. I'm already a fan but this one won't win any new converts. Although I did get a good laugh at the "right reason" for having a reunion concert.
Mick, Sweden April 23, 2008

If you love rock, you'll love this spoof

I bought this for my husband as a Xmas gift. He absolutely loved it! It's funny, it's a great spoof on the world of rock, and believe it or not, the music is pretty darn good. I would recommend this to anyone who is loves to laugh and enjoys music! January 9, 2008

WARNING: only a mono transfer from the NTSC LaserDisc

I now own three different commercially distributed versions of "The Return Of Spinal Tap" and this "Region free NTSC" version is clearly the worst.

I can tell that it is only a MONO transfer to DVD from the NTSC LaserDisc - which is crazy, because I own the LaserDisc and it's in superb digital stereo (one the best live stereo recordings I've ever heard).

When I transferred my own LaserDisc to DVD-R I had to use my brother's PAL output player which does a dodgy inbuilt conversion of NTSC for PAL TV's. Using the right setting on the DVR for that type of input gives acceptable results, but the process does noticeably compromise the video quality - making it look slightly washed out.

So the "Region free NTSC" DVD does have a more appealing look about the video - the colour and contrast are more natural. The major flaw (aside from being mono) is that the soundtrack is very slightly, but very annoyingly, out of synch all the way through - even though it is perfect on my LaserDisc.

As others have pointed out there are several blatant or wildly wrong song titles on this DVD (eight wrong titles in all), and this fact combined with "The Folksmen" being called "The Folkman", indicates that whoever authored this DVD knows as little about the English language as they do about Spinal Tap - and they didn't look for the correct titles elsewhere.

The other available version of "The Return Of Spinal Tap" is on the "bonus" DVD in the 4 disc French made (Studio Canal) boxed set, which comes in a Marshall Stack display box. That version is clearly made from the original film stock - it looks fantastic, BUT it is only the first 60 minutes (side 1) of the 110 minutes on the LaserDisc version AND it lacks some of the post production title and audio editing as well as being in mono - but with a MUCH wimpier sound than the mono audio of the "Region free NTSC" DVD.

I have given up hope of finding an officially released stereo DVD equivalent to my "Return Of Spinal Tap" LaserDisc. It took a bit of work, but I was able to use Sony Vegas video editing software to perfectly synchronise the video from this dual layer mono DVD with the stereo audio from my LaserDisc. It's been well worth the effort to have the best possible version in the DVD format. Mind you, if the producers of this particular DVD had done their job right, then everyone else would be able to own a DVD of the exact same quality.

As it stands this "Region free NTSC" DVD is at best a two star version of what could have been a five star DVD. June 8, 2007

This only goes to "8"...

Not nearly as good as the original (which goes to 11, by the way!). Its mostly a live show at the Royal Albert Hall with little snippets thrown in between songs. Not a bad follow up to TIST, but don't let it be your first "Taste of the Tap". March 19, 2007

If you like Spinal Tap. . .

This is actually a concert video from 1992, filmed at Albert Hall in London. The group performs most of their "hits", both songs from "This Is Spinal Tap" and from their follow-up album, "Break Like The Wind." For actors/comedians, they are actually excellent musicians, and the songs are performed with all the seriousness they deserve. Interspersed between the songs are short interviews with semi-celebrities such as Marty DiBergi and Artie Fufkin, along with real celebrities like Martin Short and Kenny Rogers. I would have liked these interviews and clips of the band members at home to be longer, as they are tremendously funny. If you, like me, have both Spinal Tap albums and listen to them regularly, then you will enjoy this live version. If you don't care much about their music, however, there probably isn't enough humor to satisfy you. February 23, 2007

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