This Is Spinal Tap 4K UHD (1984) (Criterion Collection)

[Scottie]

"Lick My Love Pump" Scene from This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - YouTube

[lazerface]

“the law of averages says you will survive”

- Marty DiBergi interviewing replacement drummer #4

[starman15317]

This is a must have

[Member-214423]

Nice! I still have my Criterion DVD I bought from Tweeter back in the day. I'm stoked the old commentary is included! Day one, no doubt.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by SpacemanDoug

You know one thing I wish Rob Reiner would release is the unaired pilot of his sketch show The TV Show, which is essentially where Spinal Tap originated, being featured as a parody band. It's where this whole thing started and deserves to be seen by fans, if not the whole pilot at least the Spinal Tap portions.

Pretty sure it's this bonus feature on the Criterion listing:

Spinal Tap: The Final Tour (1981)

[Röckzilla]

How much happier could I even be for a Criterion Collection 4K UHD release of This Is Spın̈al Tap (1984)...?

None. None more happier!
This could have been an awesome 40th anniversary edition but instead, it's a 41st anniversary edition... it's one louder.
ROCK AND ROLL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5FJ6sY6yVI

[steel_breeze]

Dood. This is unexpected and fun. Back in college, my friends and I were constantly quoting this and Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- and Princess Bride, come to think of it. Non stop. One of THE best. Even got to see Spinal Tap perform live at the Fillmore West, back in... I want to say 1990? Nigel's guitar solo was epic.

Now that I'm so familiar with it after so many decades, I love that you can totally see the joyful improv of it all, particularly in the scenes when they're sitting around talking to Marty. He's reading reviews of their albums they clearly haven't heard before and reacting from their improv backgrounds. Same with the whole "dust for vomit" bit; I love when they're subtly cracking each other up!

[The Sovereign]

Will I be able to hold out until the November sale? Don’t bet on it.

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by The Sovereign

Will I be able to hold out until the November sale? Don’t bet on it.

Same, already pre-ordered at ATOMIC

[gkolb]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

This will be a Digipak:

Ugh, please No. I hate digi’s, the hard plastic hubs break too easily.

Fantastic news about the 4K release though, and excited that the rumors about this came true!

[chriszilla]

Originally Posted by captveg

Pretty sure it's this bonus feature on the Criterion listing:

Spinal Tap: The Final Tour (1981)

Indeed, that is the sketch SpacemanDoug was referring to. I'm pretty sure it has not been on a physical release since the Criterion laserdisc. It's one I've always wished for when this movie would get a new release on DVD or Blu-ray.

Also, that original Criterion commentary track with Guest, McKean and Shearer is one of my all-time favorite commentaries. More people have probably heard the later one the trio did in character, but the OG Criterion track is actually funnier, in my opinion. The combination of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and their discussions of the sources of inspiration for some of the scenes/situations, makes for one of the few commentaries that I've listened to multiple times.

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by trespoochies

Awesome news! For those who were around long back when the DVD first came out, that was hot property back in the day with a sky high price. I actually sold it a while back for $75. I later got this one that has a great documentary called This is Spinal Tap: Up to 11. This seems to be the only on this release from what I know. I wish Criterion was able to get it and put it on this release. But still great news this is heading to 4k.

Similarly, I commented in the UK Criterion thread about there still being no upgrade of the complete version of The Return Of Spinal Tap. I was so looking forward to getting shot of the ropey DVD when I got the Up To 11 edition so you can imagine my disappointment that the quality of it was even worse on this release and to rub salt into the wound it cuts out the second half of the film.

[wildphantom]

The funniest film of all time. At university we used to watch this regularly on VHS. Could practically recite it. Good times.

The songs are all glorious.

The fallout after Stonehenge in the dressing room, then Derek’s absurd question and then David’s reaction - crying just typing this.

Cannot wait. Also can’t wait for the sequel.

[Trekkie313]

Glad I didn't pay $40 at FYE back in 2017 for the Criterion DVD.

[bradnoyes]

Having this and Guffman on UHD will make my life complete. One down.

[SuddenFall]

I am BEYOND thrilled to see this! The audio commentaries and the bonus scenes were the reasons I got the Criterion laserdisc many years ago, so I am glad to finally see this on 4K. Hopefully it really does have all the bonus scenes from the original Criterion release and not just the Final Tour part.

I'll likewise hold onto my Blu-ray for the 2007 concert and the rest of the stuff that's not on the new release. And yes, the DVD menu is hilarious. One of those "lost art" menus from days gone by. It's worth picking up a cheap used copy just to watch that if nothing else.

[sherlockjr]

Originally Posted by postmodel

This Is Spinal Tap - 41st Anniversary | Tickets on Sale! - YouTube

So according to Reiner in the returning to theaters announcement he says it’s been “remixed and remastered”. Is he just having fun with language or is there a chance this won’t be the original theatrical version? Or maybe that’s just the audio being “remixed”?

It's a comedy movie. Reiner is joking in the trailer and having fun with language. "Goes to 11" you know.

However, the original movie could use a good remix. I both projected this film many times and also watched from the audience. 1984 = matrixed Dolby Stereo = pretty piss poor 4-channel sound. More significantly it was relentlessly center channel mono (no surprise gien the era and low budget improv nature of the most of the scenes) except when the concert footage appeared, which was about the only place where the L, R and Surround amps even turned on. Wow, did that change the sound environment in the theater. Music over? Back to dead center mono.

My viewing back in the day made me suspect that the film was, rather appropriately for a documentary, all shot in 16mm except for those concert sequences done much more expensively in 35mm. Could be wrong about that, though. But it would match up with the low quality audio for all the "documentary" sequences but high quality for the shot on 35mm sequences.

[Geoff D]

Even if the concerts were captured on multitrack for the music most movie audio is patched in/"designed" after the fact anyway, if they wanted to have a more overt multichannel mix for the documentary bits then they would have done so. Budget/time was likely a concern there, true, but what they physically recorded the sound on for the talky bits didn't factor into it. Movies don't have armies of sound people on set to record every sound from every angle, they're there to record the dialogue.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Bladefist

Nice! I still have my Criterion DVD I bought from Tweeter back in the day.

I too still have a copy of the same from Criterion DVD. I don't know why, but that particular title from Criterion is a collectors item. I don't know if it was because of the number of pressings or what. Even weirder is I find it odd the ratio on that particular release is 1.70:1 which I really don't understand why it was released like that.

I really don't feel like double dipping on a 4K version of this movie. Any chance it could make it over to Arrow?

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

I too still have a copy of the same from Criterion DVD. I don't know why, but that particular title from Criterion is a collectors item. I don't know if it was because of the number of pressings or what. Even weirder is I find it odd the ratio on that particular release is 1.70:1 which I really don't understand why it was released like that.

I really don't feel like double dipping on a 4K version of this movie. Any chance it could make it over to Arrow?

Wait for the Arrow.