Spinal Tap II: The End Continues - The Fine Line Widens Between Stupid and Clever
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B
If you know who Marty DiBergi is; If you know some or all of the lyrics to “Big Bottom,” “Hell Hole,” “Stonehenge” or even “Listen To the Flower People,” then this review is likely for you.
It has been 41 years since the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (also known as This is Spinal Tap: A Rockumentary by Marty DeBergi) was unleashed on the world. The faux documentary, about a heavy metal band going through a fairly predictable career trajectory came out in 1984.
Wait, is that Sir Elton John on keyboards?
This is Spinal Tap played on the cliches of the music industry through the world of a heavy metal rock band that was trying to revive its career so beautifully and believably that some people — including those in the music industry — thought Spinal Tap was a real band and wondered why relatively unknown performers merited their own doc.
It also annoyed some actual touring metal bands, who felt that the film was making fun of them.
This is Spinal Tap is now a movie classic. I wish I could say the follow up Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is as good. But, alas, it doesn’t really touch the beloved original. (At least not on first viewing. Sometimes satire is like whisky: it needs to play on the palate before it hits the right notes).
Fair enough. The music industry as it existed in 1984 is not the same beast. And so perhaps it’s a lot to ask that the follow-up would be as immediately funny, or as resonant, even if it pays homage to the original and some of its highlights, and features superstar cameos.
So, to the movie. It’s now been 41 years since the first documentary and 15 years since the lads from Squatney, after an on-again off-again career, split for good. The core band members, guitarists David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and bass player Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) have gone their separate ways. Each has sincerely committed themselves to new careers.
For instance, Nigel Tufnel owns a cheese and guitar boutique in Berwick-upon-Tweed, that he runs with his new girlfriend Moira (Nina Conti). (Not the haberdashery he’d once contemplated)
DiBergi catches up with some of the characters from the first film, such as publicist Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher), record promo rep Artie Fufkin (Paul Shafferr), and St. Hubbins’ divisive ex, Jeanine Pettibone (June Chadwick).
Their manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) has died. (Hendra passed in 2021). But his daughter, Hope Faith (Kerry Godliman), has inherited Spinal Tap’s contract, which allows her to get them together for a reunion concert.
The band members are, at first, reluctant. But then they come to see this as a chance to cement their legacy in rock ‘n’ roll.
Faith, recognizing she knows nothing about the music industry, hires the slick and ridiculous music industry promoter Simon Howler (Chris Addison) to help market the tour. Among other things, Addison suggests that one of them dying would be a great promotional opportunity.
With tensions between St. Hubbins and Tufnel still simmering, the band members fly into New Orleans to begin their rehearsals and write some new tunes. And of course, they hire a drummer — they’ve had 11 through the years, all of whom died in freak accidents, starting with John “Stumpy” Pepys (Ed Begley Jr.) back in the 60s. When Questlove and Lars Ulrich (Metallica!) turn them down, the band holds auditions, finding their powerhouse drummer in a dynamo Didi Crockett (played by real life dynamo drummer Valerie Franco).
DiBergi (Rob Reiner) is chronicling all of this, including scene-stealing drop-ins from Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John.
As with the original, the film plays on subtle bits and pieces of absurdities — like the idea of marking the 41st anniversary, rather than the 40th of the original as would be the norm. Or how the number 2, in the logo for the film, is represented by a little Stonehenge formation.
The film picks up some of the key moments from the original and plays with them which is fitting. The bits live on 41 years later and so fans of the This Is Spinal Tap will recognize the way those moments are played out in the sequel.
Spinal Tap 11: The End Continues doesn’t quite catch the spark of the original. But in this case, I’m not sure that that’s so bad. The pleasure of the film is really about revisting these characters.
The core members of Spinal Tap are 41 years older, but have barely changed. None of them has really grown as a person or become wiser, or more connected to the real world. And for that reason alone, it’s great to see them again.
Spinal Tap 11: The End Continues. Directed by Rob Reiner. Starring Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Nina Conti, Kerry Goldiman, Didi Crockett, Paul McCartney, Elton John. In theatres September 12.