‘Spinal Tap’ plays the Blu-rays

Twenty-five years later, the film “This Is Spinal Tap” plays like a smash hit, not a golden oldie.

Rob Reiner’s spoof of rock bands in general and heavy metal morons in particular still hits all of the high comedy notes. While old-school metal has mostly gone out of style, stupidity never fades away. There’s a  universality at work in this movie. We are all Derek Smalls … sort of.

Fox/MGM has debuted “This Is Spinal Tap” on Blu-ray, throwing in a DVD bonus disc with some so-so new material.

Most of the extras are ported over from the special edition DVD of 2000, including the commentary, which the band members do in character. That would be Micheal McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest, aka the Folksmen.

A generous collection of deleted footage repeats as well, adding up to more than an hour. The deleted scenes date back to the 1994 and 1998 Criterion Collection versions of “Spin Tap,” but they’re worth revisiting. Note the one with marijuana and the singing limo driver, hilarious but wisely left out of the movie. These guys didn’t need drugs to be addled — and kids can appreciate the humor without parental worries.

The Blu-ray (and DVD) extras have everyone in character, including director “Marty DiBergi” (Reiner), who says the band has only itself to blame for looking bad in the film. The band, meanwhile, blames the director for a hack job.

Too bad there wasn’t a second commentary with the actors talking about the film 25 years on, especially since it’s become such a pop culture touchstone. (Or a third or fourth, since the Criterion laserdisc and DVD came with two talks.)

The Blu-ray won’t wow anyone with its video or audio. The movie was shot on 16mm, much of it hand-held. High-def can only do so much, but you’d hope for more. The 5.1 audio does a good job with the bottom (big bottom!) and spits out the dialogue clearly, but again there’s not much of an upgrade from the previous DVD.