THIS IS SPINAL TAP Directed by Rob Reiner (Embassy Pictures)

by John Mendelssohn

The missus used to be married to a little asshole who produces comedy specials for cable television. The principals of This Is Spinal Tap— director Rob Reiner and stars Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Chris Guest—were frequent visitors to her and the little asshole’s home. She tells me that said principals constitute a fervent mutual admiration society that perceives itself as representing 99% of modern American satiric genius.

I don’t know if that’s true, and I don’t know if it ain’t. What I do know is that This Is Spinal Tap, sort of a heavy metal The Rutles, is exactly the film you’d have expected a little clique that regards itself as representing 99% of modern American satiric genius to have made. A couple of hysterically funny moments notwithstanding, it’s a self-indulgent bore, a maddening exercise in squandered opportunities.

The missus points out, for instance, that This Is Spinal Tap marks at least the umpteenth time that Reiner and friends have wrongly expected an audience to be amused by the Sinatra-Qbsessed chauffeur Bruno Kirby so loves to play.