Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – laughs are sadly ‘thin on the ground’

Harry Shearer and Michael McKean in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

(Image credit: Kyle Kaplan / AP)

It’s hard to overstate the “cultural significance” of Rob Reiner’s spoof “rockumentary” “This Is Spinal Tap”, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. An account of a disastrous US tour by a clueless English rock band, the 1984 film has become “an endlessly quoted cult classic”, regularly cited as one of the funniest comedies ever made. Now, 40-plus years on, Reiner and his cast have reunited for a sequel and, alas, it is unlikely to inspire any such devotion. As in the first film, it purports to be a fly-on-the-wall documentary, but this time, the laughs are sadly “thin on the ground”.

High expectations

No sequel to “Spinal Tap” could meet fans’ highest expectations, said James Walton in The Spectator. This one doesn’t “live up to the lower ones, either”. When the film opens, the band haven’t spoken to each other in years, and documentarian Marty Di Bergi (Reiner) finds them living in “a series of effortfully wacky locales”: Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) runs a guitar and cheese shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed; Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) is the curator of a museum of glue; and David St Hubbins (Michael McKean) writes on-hold music. However, a Garth Brooks cover of their old hit “Big Bottom” has just gone viral, setting the scene for a reunion concert in New Orleans.

Not ‘terrible’

Unsure what to do next, the film tries focusing on how much the industry has changed, by introducing a Simon Cowell-style promoter (Chris Addison) – a figure who already seems dated – and then throws a load of jokes at the problem, in the hopes some stick. To be fair, some do, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph; it’s fun to see the band again, and the final concert is “inspired”. So no, the film is not “terrible” – but to be sure of enjoying it, you might want to convince yourself that it is going to be.