Rock Watch: This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Watched:  07/06/2025

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Rob Reiner/ Marti DiBergi

SimonUK and I took in the re-release of This is Spinal Tap (1984) at the Alamo on Sunday evening.  

I don't need to tell you what This Is Spinal Tap is, I hope.  Apparently, The Drafthouse has signed up to host Fathom events, and this included the viewing of the new 4K restoration of the movie, but it's sort of America's original faux-documentary.  It led directly to Christopher Guest's brilliant mockumentary* series and indirectly to the format of shows like The Office and Parks and Rec.  

I have lost track of when and how I saw this movie the first time.  I remember seeing it very young, and not really getting the jokes - minus the "it goes to 11" bit (I want to say as early as 1985 or 1986) but then seeing it again at the end of high school and absolutely getting it (maybe in 1992-93).  By then, I'd had a subscription to Rolling Stone, so some of the references and gags - like the cricket bat - made more sense.

Superman 2025 Pre-Watch: Superman - The Movie (1978)

Watched:  07/05/2025

Viewing:  a lot.  Whole bunch of times.

Format:  Max

Director:  Richard Donner

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

In prep for seeing Superman 2025 on the 8th, I figured I owed the OG classic one more spin before settling in for what Big Blue has to offer us in our modern era.  

To catch folks up, I saw Superman: The Movie (1978) during its initial release in December of 1978 or shortly thereafter.  Maybe in Spring of 1979.  But I'd certainly seen it in the theater with my dad and brother during that window when I was 3.  I recall seeing it, as they were giving away gumball machines that were red or blue, and at that time, my brother's stuff was coded blue, and mine was red, so my parents could be even-steven giving us things, but we knew what belonged to who.

I think often of how spoiled we were as kids in the 1980s.  One of my first movies outings was seeing Star Wars in the theater at age 2, and then all of the paraphernalia around the movie from toys to wall paper .  To me, movies were just where mind-boggling things happened, and what was the point if you weren't seeing something amazing?