Smell the Glove Midnights This Weekend at the Tivoli – THIS IS SPINAL TAP!

“Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It’s just not really widely reported.”

THIS IS SPINAL TAP runs only 82 minutes, which is hard to believe, given how many jokes, both subtle and not so subtle, are thrown at us. One of my favorite moments of the film is when we see Nigel Tufnel’s shrieking guitar solo. He is aimlessly dragging a violin across his guitar, and then stops to tune the violin. Kills me every time I see – which is a lot of times and I always find something new to laugh at I hadn’t noticed before.

THIS IS SPINAL TAP is such a perfect send up of the lost days of arena rock that you will often feel that you are watching a documentary. Every line is perfectly believable. This movie is commonly labelled a “cult classic”, which is a shame, because it is one of the great comedies of all time. The dialogue is absolutely brilliant. It is lively and funny, but at the same time tells the tale of aging rockers refusing to believe that they are past their prime.

“There’s such a fine line between clever and stupid,” says David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap’s lead singer, and this movie finds it each and every time. “The sights, the sounds, the smells of one of England’s loudest bands.” They also happen to be one of England’s (or anywhere’s) worst bands, and they are on a fast decent to nowhere while promoting their album “Smell the Glove.”

One of the many, many delights of THIS IS SPINAL TAP is in showing just how low the band goes (the lowest is being billed behind a puppet show at a local amusement park), but this film gives so much more than that descent. It truly has its pulse on the vast humor that stupidity can provide, and as it gives us a clueless and derivative rock band, the cleverness in how it brings us its stupidity is never less than breathtaking.

Now lucky St. Louisans can experience the stupid on the big screen when THIS IS SPINAL TAP screens this weekend (August 1^st and 2^nd) at the Tivoli as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight series.

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO. Admission is a mere $8!

The Tivoli’s website can be found HERE

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Here’s the Reel Late at the Tivoli Line-up for the next few weeks:

Aug. 8-9               AKIRA           

Aug. 15-16           TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – The Original!

Aug. 22-23           ARMY OF DARKNESS

Aug. 29-30           BLAZING SADDLES

Sept. 5-6              PURPLE RAIN – 30^th anniversary

Sept. 12-13         GHOST IN THE SHELL