SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Rob Reiner
Stars: Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, Chris Addison, Kerri Goodliman, Valerie Franco, Fran Drescher, John Michael Higgins, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Jeffrey C J Vanston, Don Lake, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Lars Uhlrich.
In 1984 we were introduced to fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, which followed the trials and tribulations of the band during its first US tour. That film was the brainchild of director Rob Reiner and collaborators Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest, who has forged his career with a series of mockumentaries (Best In Show, etc), and that groundbreaking parody basically created the mockumentary genre. Despite failing at the box office when released This Is Spinal Tap went on to become a cult classic and fans often quote some of its more memorable lines. And now forty years later we get this belated sequel, and once again the filmmakers turn it up to eleven.
The film follows the members of Spinal Tap as they prepare for a reunion/farewell arena concert in New Orleans. Following the death of their former manager Ian Faith, his daughter Hope (Kerri Goodliman) has inherited the band’s contract and discovers that they are contractually bound to play one more concert. Documentary filmmaker Marty Di Bergi (Reiner), who teaches film at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts since he been unable to get work, sets out to make a record of the preparations for the comeback and concert. He tracks down the three musicians and reacquaints himself with them as he fills in the gaps and learns what they have been doing since the band split up fifteen years earlier.
Guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Guest) now runs a cheese and guitar shop – a strange combination that works on a transactional arrangement. Bass player Derek Smalls (Shearer) now operates the New Museum of Glue. Of the three only lead vocalist and guitarist David St Hubbins (McKean) is still involved in the music industry – he creates jingles for corporate on-hold telephone messages, and theme music for popular murder podcasts. He is also involved in writing the score for Night Of The Assisted Living Dead, a horror film set in a nursing home. (I’d love to see that film actually!) But there are tensions between David and Nigel that simmer away as they rehearse for the gig.
The band also need a drummer, but because all of their previous drummers have died in unfortunate circumstances a number of big names approached (including Metallica’s Lars Uhlrich) all refuse the gig. They eventually find Didi Crockett (Valerie Franco), a superb drummer who fits the bill.
As with the original film, Spinal Tap II skewers many of the familiar cliches of the music industry, especially the clueless executives, here represented by the sleazy promoter Simon Howler (Chris Addison), who openly admits that he doesn’t even like music and whose demands on the band seem increasingly unreasonable.
There are a couple of cameos from music heavyweights Paul McCartney and Elton John, who both seem in on the joke and play its straight faced. They poke fun at themselves and throw themselves into the nonsense with gusto. John Michael Higgins (a regular in the mockumentaries from the filmmakers) pops up briefly as Bob Kitness, a personal trainer hired by Howler to put the aging musicians through a fitness regime. Franco, who is a drummer, brings veracity to her role.
While it doesn’t match the original, this sequel is genuinely funny and serves up lots of laugh-out loud moments. Some of the dialogue was improvised on set by the performers. The filmmakers have even managed to work in a Mel Brooks-like fart gag.
Spinal Tap II is occasionally self-indulgent, but the music is great. The actors all played their own instruments, composed and sang all of the songs, and the staging of the climactic Stonehenge-themed concert itself is quite impressive. Given the reverence with which many hold for the original film, there is a nice touch of nostalgia here as we reconnect with these clueless aging musicians as they grow old and reprise some of their greatest hits one final time.
★★★☆
