TS: This Is Spinal Tap vs. Withnail & I

TISP: possibly more selective appeal (to people know know/care about music)
W&I: guy-centric in my experience.

I go with the latter, but I've lived with both for years.

The Yakuza conference in Kill Bill.
Eddie Izzard's Dressed to Kill

And the lack of funny things happening. Nothing funny actually happens.

And there is no warmth from the characters. The end scene resolves a friendship that isn't actually set up during the rest of the film.

So, no characters, no funny lines, no funny situations, no plot.

Spinal Tap wins by a Darkness-shaped country mile.

boggle

And how can you say it had no funny lines and no WARMTH? Were you watching a different film?

More heart. More art. More fear. Less Billy Crystal.

W&I - says a lot about the people, their characters, more personal

TIST - makes some clever points about epistemology and the nature (that it is always a lie) of the documentary form.

Both are better than Caddyshack which is quoted far too often.

I actually finally just saw Withnail the other week. Pretty damned funny. It was nice actually hearing all them Ride/Orbital sample bits in context.

The funnier of the two? Withnail is fresher for me, Tap is still great twenty years on -- for now, a tie.

Fixed.

"You could stuff it up your arse and fuck off while you're doing it."

"Wanker."

Withnail.

... I have a WIFE and KIDS!"

And his face just before that when he says "what fucker said THAT!" and turns and sees the big bastard; that look of abject horror with the bread half falling out of his gob. Classic.

"It will die, IT WILL DIE!"

"As a youth, I used to weep in butcher's shops"

REG is the loveliest person. He was in Australia last year promoting that film he wrote, and did a talk at the start of a showing of Withnail, which was quite entertaining. His interview on Denton was also greatly amusing, as he managed to turn it around and started asking Denton very personal questions! It was hilarious.

Withnail without a doubt. I saw it again a few weeks ago and it was just as funny as ever.

this thread is sort of a crypto-Monty Python routine recitation ain't it

is it sacrilege to say they both hugely disappointed? but spinal tap better.

"... no, alright 'A'... exhibit 'A'... now we move on to this... look, look who's in here? No one! And then in here there's a little guy... look! So it's... it's a complete catastrophe!"

I think you learn to appreciate some of the stuff in Withnail the more times you see it, but probably never laugh more than the first time.

Spinal Tap never gets less funny though, and arguably gets funnier with every watching. A line that's become one of my favourites is "I'm just as God made me, sir."

Withnail will always be my favourite film, due to the amount of sentimental attachment I have with it. I've seen it too many times, now when I watch it it's not like I'm viewing a movie but I actually feel part of it. Amazingly quotable.

Spinal is meh for me personally, love it but it's absolutely nowhere near being my favourite movie. 'Jazz Odyssey' being my fave part.

Withnail will always be my favourite film, due to the amount of sentimental attachment I have with it. I've seen it too many times, now when I watch it it's not like I'm viewing a movie but I actually feel part of it.
^^^

Is Withnail & I especially popular in the UK? In the US I would guess Spinal Tap has about 50x the popular recognition.

it's very popular except with ppl who entirely correctly hate it and find it creepy and boring

Yes Withnail has a strong cult here. Still what ppl first think of when you mention Richard E. Grant? What I think of anyway.

A weird selection for a deathmatch regardless.

I watched it for the first time in 15 years last night. It doesn't get going until the last 40 minutes when they're trapped in Monty's cottage. Still found McGann's double takes and Richard Griffith's absurd line readings hilarious. You Britishes sure are fond of buggery.

not only is it creepy and boring but it influenced an awful lot of shite thereafter

Our English Cousins

What did it influence?

what are American comedies revered by britishes that we find creepy and boring?

What did it influence?

― Little Billy Love (Tom D.), Monday, 8 January 2024 22:39 (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

anyone quoting withnail & i for starters

“creepy & boring” to creepy bores maybe

lol otm

apples & oranges I say

Spinal Tap is an ensemble piece, W&I is more like a play or something

I mean, it is creepy in one sense that the whole Monty/burglary trapped thing was inspired by a real incident that occurred to Bruce Robinson when he was younger.

While its not something I'd watch/quote anymore as that feels a bit studenty, I do still find myself saying I had "late luncheon at three" a bit.

I'd say Withnail & I is faaaaaarrrr more popular in the UK than Spinal Tap. It's old hat now and a lot of the humour is way out of date. But it's one of those "every line is quotable" films, and boy do people like to quote it

For me, personally, Spinal Tap has its moments but it's also kind of boring (and has its fair share of dated jokes - that's comedy I guess)

Well, Spinal Tap isn't boring but it's more of a niche musician/music fan thing.

For me, personally, Spinal Tap has its moments but it's also kind of boring (and has its fair share of dated jokes - that's comedy I guess)

― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin)

I agree.

if you can separate withnail & I from it's fans (I appreciate this is impossible) it's still pretty great in parts, the hamlet soliloquy at the end, the intro with king curtis playing, etc.

xp It's been a while since I saw it but I remember it as being laconically slow moving, nowhere near as snappy at W&I; and I never really found the songs especially funny. I'd rather watch the first Cheech & Chong film, if we're talking US comedy movies about rock bands.

But yeah, it's often all-too easy to look back on these classic comedy films decades after the fact and say "I never found it funny anyway" or "that's what students like" type of way. I doubt the majority of students today would even know these movies - contextually they'd be baffling.

Spinal Tap... slow moving? It is many things but slow it is not

I've known too many people who've based their entire personas on Withnail to find it even vaguely amusing. Reminds me of being stuck talking to pretentious 'artist' types in my younger days excoriating me for not being as cool as they supposedly are. Double thumbs down!

Most of the really offensive attitudes in Spinal Tap are displayed by Ian Faith, who's the one character meant to be a complete arsehole. They did cut some stuff making the rest of them look like creepy fuckers, you can see it on the bonus material that's probably floating around Youtube by now.

I've known too many people who've based their entire personas on Withnail to find it even vaguely amusing. Reminds me of being stuck talking to pretentious 'artist' types in my younger days excoriating me for not being as cool as they supposedly are. Double thumbs down!

― the typefaces they are a-changin' (Matt #2),

I guess I can add Dorian Gray and a bunch of other stuff to the list.

I've known too many people who've based their entire personas on Withnail to find it even vaguely amusing.

Can honestly say I've never met a single person who's based their entire persona on Withnail.

you shd check out message board ilx

Balls!

What absolute twaddle!

ILX is more Artie Fufkin tbh.

Creepy and boring -> one or the other, surely? If I'm creeped out I'm not bored.

it's both

it's very popular except with ppl who entirely correctly hate it and find it creepy and boring

― mark s, Monday, January 8, 2024 5:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

lol I was shown it 23 years ago by a friend on my first trip to England because they said I HAD to see it. He and his friends all loved and I thought it was fine but I think most people I know feel this way about it now. I was hardly remember anything about it except the camberwell carrot at this point.

Can honestly say I've never met a single person who's based their entire persona on Withnail.

― Little Billy Love (Tom D.), Tuesday, January 9, 2024 1:09 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

you shd check out message board ilx

― mark s, Tuesday, January 9, 2024 1:11 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

VG++++
or should I say "I think I've been on here too long. I feel unusual."

I'd say it's W&I that's laconic and slow-moving. When I first saw it in the cinema in the 80s I could barely work out what was going on in places - the sound was poor, the lighting was bad...it was only from reading the screenplay years later that some parts made sense.

What did it influence?

― Little Billy Love (Tom D.), Monday, 8 January 2024 22:39 (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

anyone quoting withnail & i for starters

― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac)

Truly the British 'Lebowski', worthy and actually pretty enjoyable movie completely ruined by students incessantly quoting every single fucking line

What do we mean when we say Withnail & I is "creepy"? Is that just because of Monty?

I find it creepy-funny, especially the last dinner scene, but ymmv as you can see

I love "Withnail...". Uncle Monty hurling curses at his cat is all time ROFL material for me. I never found "...Spinal Tap" to be anything more than okay. Dunno why.

W&I is not creepy, yer crazy fools

Is that just because of Monty?

Or the fairground music?

ruined by students incessantly quoting every single fucking line

I did a miserable construction job (excavating under an old house for a new foundation) with a guy that constantly recited Monty Python sketches, I was ready to shove the rotary hammer into his skull

Cleese and Gilliam are doing a good job of alienating any potential Python fans under 40, so the ranks of incessant Python-quoters are thinning. On this side of the pond you rarely encounter anyone quoting Withnail & I!

Richard E. Grant of course immediately brings to mind Hudson Hawk or L.A. Story

As one does. That or Warlock, RIP Julian Sands.

Alfred, of course, is always concerned when the sky is beginning to bruise, for he shall be forced to camp.

Grant was fabulous opposite Melissa McCarthy in Can You Forgive Me?.

When I was a kid Monty Python was on PBS every Sunday night. Presumably takes a bit more work to find now before you can start annoying everyone in your life with dead parrot jokes.

Anyway

https://thehardtimes.net/culture/man-cant-believe-date-doesnt-get-reference-to-43-year-old-british-sitcom

excuse me, are you reading "Yes I Can"?

REG now might be most famous in the States for getting his ass kicked on Downton Abbey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jXSm2iid_0

Remember how in Sliding Doors one of the charming quirks of the nice guy she should end up with (instead of the terrible bastard in the other timeline) is that he keeps quoting Monty Python. "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" ha ha ha, fucking prick.

I don't think I had even heard of Withnail until I was in my 20s, and I remember finding it mildly amusing and feeling like there were probably cultural reasons I didn't enjoy it more.

My parents raised me on Monty Python though, and there were plenty of jokes I found hilarious as a young kid even though I didn't really understand them.

I've always found Python pretty tedious, though my dad liked some song about a lumberjack