Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (Photo – Bleeker Street)
I suppose I’m the target audience for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, the new film about a trio of aging musicians revisited forty years after the first mockumentary.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
Directed by Rob Reiner – 2025
Reviewed by Garrett Rowlan
Of course, there’s a shift in focus. While the original Spinal Tap implied that the music of the Woodstock generation had morphed into spectacle and hucksterism, the reboot is keenly aware of its aging protagonists (and audience). It humorously acknowledges the whole “rockers-with-walkers” syndrome now tied to recycled and self-tribute bands.
The three rockers (Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean) don garish clothes and British accents for a film narrated (and directed) by Rob Reiner. The movie introduces us to their activities in the years since the debacle of their last tour. Shearer is now the curator of a glue museum; Guest owns a small shop specializing in cheese and guitars.
The band reluctantly gathers to honor an old contract, and the age-related gags keep coming. McKean has written the soundtrack for a film called Night of the Assisted Living Dead; a song Shearer wrote (one of many with garish lyrics) includes the line, “I’m gonna be rockin’ in the urn.” A promoter suggests that, given the band’s audience, the commercial tie-ins should be things like walk-in showers and stair lifts.
After securing a New Orleans venue when A Night with Stormy Daniels was canceled, we witness the band’s snarling, buffoonish rehearsals. Paul McCartney shows up and tries to help, but with no apparent success. He eventually yields to Elton John, who joins the band in a goofy tribute to hippiedom, singing and playing piano.
A promoter, who would prefer the geezers were a K-pop band, suggests that their legacy would be sealed if “one or two of you were to die”, which nearly happens at the film’s end in a gag reworked from the first movie.
While the film’s jokes stem from the obvious setup, I chuckled periodically throughout. By the time the final credits rolled, I was reminded of that line from The Wild Bunch: “It ain’t like it used to be, but it’ll do.”
> Playing at Landmark Pasadena Playhouse, Regal Edwards Alhambra Renaissance, AMC Atlantic Times Square 14, AMC Santa Anita 16, LOOK Dine-In Cinemas Glendale, and Laemmle Glendale.
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