I am a huge Beatles fan, and a lover of documentaries, both real and "fake" (Like the works of Christopher Guest). I've been itching to see "The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash" for quite a while now, and I was happy to see it out on DVD. I enjoyed the movie, but I think that it probably doesn't rate well with the immortal "This is Spinal Tap."
The film follows the fake-Beatles, "The Rutles" through their entire career, mimicking the famous Fab Four at every turn. Dirk, Nasty, Stig, and Barry are all funny, and I loved all the little details that hardcore Beatles fans will chuckle at; the clothes and hair (Usually spot on exactly, right down to the fur coat Nasty (John's doppleganger)sports during their final rooftop concert). The songs are fun, near copies of Beatle melodies with new words. And a lot of the gags work well, I especially liked Nasty marrying a Neo-Nazi performance artist.
Written and conceived by Monty Python's Eric Idle, who also plays Dirk, and the narrator of the film, gets a lot of mileage out of mocking the roving reporter format of the traditional documentary. The film starts with a word crawl that speeds up faster than the narrator can speak it, and in the next scene, Idle's narrator can't keep up with his moving camera that eventually drives off down the street leaving him in the dust.
But while the film is a predecessor of stuff like Spinal Tap, I think that the formula for mocking documentaries, especially music ones, was really perfected later. While it's Idle's style to mock formalities such as those of the documentary or investigative reports, it really distances the audience from really believing The Rutles are a real group (I never for a second did, while anyone could be led to believe Spinal Tap were real). Also, while a lot of Idle's stuff as the narrator works, some of it doesn't, and after a while it begins to grate. I really felt it was taking up screen time that would have been more well-spent with interviews with The Rutles themselves, or more arthival footage.
Overall, this film is fun, and certainly will be a pleasure for any Beatles fan, but for straight humor value, a "Spinal Tap" or "Best in Show" beats it.
The film follows the fake-Beatles, "The Rutles" through their entire career, mimicking the famous Fab Four at every turn. Dirk, Nasty, Stig, and Barry are all funny, and I loved all the little details that hardcore Beatles fans will chuckle at; the clothes and hair (Usually spot on exactly, right down to the fur coat Nasty (John's doppleganger)sports during their final rooftop concert). The songs are fun, near copies of Beatle melodies with new words. And a lot of the gags work well, I especially liked Nasty marrying a Neo-Nazi performance artist.
Written and conceived by Monty Python's Eric Idle, who also plays Dirk, and the narrator of the film, gets a lot of mileage out of mocking the roving reporter format of the traditional documentary. The film starts with a word crawl that speeds up faster than the narrator can speak it, and in the next scene, Idle's narrator can't keep up with his moving camera that eventually drives off down the street leaving him in the dust.
But while the film is a predecessor of stuff like Spinal Tap, I think that the formula for mocking documentaries, especially music ones, was really perfected later. While it's Idle's style to mock formalities such as those of the documentary or investigative reports, it really distances the audience from really believing The Rutles are a real group (I never for a second did, while anyone could be led to believe Spinal Tap were real). Also, while a lot of Idle's stuff as the narrator works, some of it doesn't, and after a while it begins to grate. I really felt it was taking up screen time that would have been more well-spent with interviews with The Rutles themselves, or more arthival footage.
Overall, this film is fun, and certainly will be a pleasure for any Beatles fan, but for straight humor value, a "Spinal Tap" or "Best in Show" beats it.