Give a Yiti

Apparently quite a few viewers thought it was a genuine documentary and I think I read somewhere that _STING_ contemplated suing the makers because he thought they were taking the mickey out of him so it's rather more than just an amusing movie. It's an amusing movie that was mistaken for a documentary?

THIS IS SPINAL TAP Spinal Tap is brilliant. Is it _really_? Or is it just amusing? Apparently quite a few viewers thought it was a genuine documentary and I think I read somewhere that _STING_ contemplated suing the makers because he thought they were taking the mickey out of him so it's rather more than just an amusing movie. Dave in Toronto That sounds a little urban legendish so i googled sting-TIST you may find this of interest: In the early Eighties Sting, Branford Marsalis and Ken Kurlin were putting together the Blue Turtles band and I was invited to go with them to Barbados. This is Spinal Tap had come out and I kept urging Sting to see it. We rented it from the one video store in town. Sting watched it every night for the next two weeks. He fell in love with it, just like many rock stars. We would speak in Spinal Tapese. For Tap fans who watch carefully in Bring on the Night, when Sting debuted Fortress Around Your Heart in Paris, they constructed a tiny fortage and lowered it on to the stage next to him. He didn't actually see it but you can see it on video if you look carefully. It's Spinal Tap size. A couple of weeks ago I was at Sting's house in England. It's a late Tudor mansion, warm and friendly, with the River Avon running through the backyard. He said, 'Come on, I'll show you the neighborhood and you can meet the neighbors.' So we get on horses and were romping through the English morning mist along the river. Sting is excellent horsemen, but I was sort of holding on. So we get about two or three miles down valley. I'm wanting to go back, but Sting says, 'C'mon, I really want you to meet the neighbors.' Everything is covered in this romantic mist as we approach the edge of this ridge and Sting starts singing aloud. 'In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history...' with this whole accent. Every word of it was perfect, straight from the movie. And then the mist clears and about 700 yards away in the morning dawn is Stonehenge. He keeps singing the whole Stonehenge song as we gallop around it. Then we went back and he finished working on Mercury Falling. VIC GARBARINI Rock Critic

The Best Years Of Our Lives Strongly disagree on these five, but you may (or do) have a point about the others.  The first two are as close as I've ever seen to being perfect movies; although TBYOOL has an amateur in a major supporting role he's one of the most compelling amateurs ever.   I finally saw TBYOOL all the way through about a year or so ago and was flabbergasted.  That this film doesn't get more accolades is a shame in my opinion.  It's terrific.  There are some ham-handed moments, like when March and Loy talk to their daughter about how their marriage had rough spots, but otherwise it immediately became one of my favorite films on the first viewing.  I've seen it twice since then and love it every time. Stacia

I don't hate GIANT either but it has flaws and IMO James Dean's performance was one of them - his portrayal of an old man was ludicrous.   Thank you.  I do not get James Dean at all.  His performances are nothing but uncontrolled scenery chewing, a series of reaction shots in the middle of otherwise coherent movies.   Giant wasn't bad, but it wasn't good

The first one doesn't hold up well at all; the second one was pretty good, worth seeing twice when it first came out; the third one was fatally flawed; and the last three have been overdone, tedious bores.  It all amounts to just one pretty good movie, 'The Empire Strikes Back'.  (IMO) I do not see what everyone loves about Empire.  I think it is the weakest of the first three.  _object_ions to the third center around the Ewoks, but for those like me who don't mind the little teddy-bears, this is a ripping-good yarn.  For me they rate, in order of production, 1-3-2-who-cares, who-cares, who-cares ..