Spinal Tap II: The End Continues - A Review: Old Timer's Day
/****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****
My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
My Recommendation: SKIP IT. You can’t really dust for vomit.
“The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’, that’s what I said”
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, directed by Rob Reiner, is a mockumentary that chronicles the return, and farewell, of Spinal Tap – the fictional British heavy metal band made famous in the iconic 1984 mockumentary This is Spinal Tap.
This is Spinal Tap is one of my all-time favorite comedies. Featuring sterling improvisational comedy from its lead trio of geniuses – Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest, as well as a cornucopia of supreme supporting turns from the likes of Fran Dresher, Paul Shaffer, Bruno Kirby, Billy Crystal and Ed Begley Jr., This is Spinal Tap mastered the mockumentary genre.
Christopher Guest, who plays dim-witted Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel, is one of my all-time favorite comedic actors/directors. He made a bevy of mockumentary films in the decades after This is Spinal Tap, which include such glorious gems as Waiting for Guffman (1996) and Best in Show (2000).
All of this is to say that I am a fan of Spinal Tap in general, and Christopher Guest in particular. But even I was shocked when I saw that Guest, McKean and Shearer were getting back together with Rob Reiner to make a sequel to This is Spinal Tap. I mean…why now? Forty years after the original?
“My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo, I’d like to sink her with pink torpedo”
Spinal Tap II hit theatres back on September 12th and made zero ripples in the pop culture pond and disappeared almost instantly. I didn’t see any marketing for it at all, and its box office was a startlingly low $2.2 million on a $22 million budget.
The film is now available on HBO Max, which is where I checked it out.
“I saw her on Monday, t’was my lucky bun day, you know what I mean”
Let me start off by saying I was rooting for the film because I love the original and Christopher Guest so much. My assessment is thus…the film certainly doesn’t live up to the original, and it doesn’t even really live up to my very low expectations for it.
Christopher Guest is 77 years old, Michael McKean is 78 years old and Harry Shearer is 81 years old…and I think it is safe to say that they have lost their fastballs. These men once threw 100 mph…and now they can barely throw at all. Watching Spinal Tap II is like watching old timer’s day at the ballpark. It’s nice to see the famous old faces wearing their uniforms again but watching them try to play the game and stumble and fall down instead, is a painful and often cringe-filled reminder that Father Time is undefeated.
There are a few funny bits and lines in the film where I chuckled out loud, but those were few and far between. In fact, the scene I found funniest was in the closing credits, which was an odd choice.
“I love her each weekday, each velvety cheek day, you know what I mean”
A big issue with Spinal Tap II is that it undermines the comedic premise that was the foundation that fueled the original…namely that Spinal Tap are delusional about their abilities and their fame. For example, there’s the scene where they want to say hello to another rock star of the moment at a hotel or airport and they are blown off – an embarrassing moment where their self-delusion is challenged.
In contrast, in this film, Spinal Tap are slavishly adored by such rock royalty as Paul McCartney and Elton John. That’s a cute thing to have these two legends be Spinal Tap fans, but if we are trying to stick with the bit, both McCartney and John would never have heard of Spinal Tap and if they did, they’d laugh at them.
The majority of bits in the film don’t really work, and some of them fall really flat. For example, the film’s opening, where Reiner gives a little talk and then knocks over a bunch of chairs, made me wince as it got the movie off to a very cringe start.
The films meanders along from there, occasionally with a laugh, but usually with a doddering incoherence and comedic flaccidity.
The majority of characters, like concert promoter Simon Howler, or fitness guru Bob Kitness (played by the usually superb John Michael Higgins), are never really fleshed out for their comedic value.
Kerry Godlimen, who plays the daughter of Spinal Tap’s original manager and who has inherited her father’s rights to the band, is terrific comedic actress but is underused and poorly used.
“Big bottom, big bottom, talk about bum cakes, my gals got ‘em”
Unfortunately, the funny moments in Spinal Tap II are never as funny as you want them to be and the less funny moments are so numerous that they are hard to ignore no matter how hard you try.
The original Spinal Tap was chock full of quotable lines, like “it goes to eleven”, “you can’t really dust for vomit”, “shit sandwich”, and unforgettably funny scenes, like Stonehenge and getting lost on the way to the stage, but this new Spinal Tap movie has none of those moments or lines.
Ironically, the new Spinal Tap feels terribly old, while the old Spinal Tap felt incredibly new.
Ultimately, Spinal Tap II is a perfectly harmless movie, and I do admit it was nice to see the boys back together again even though they now look like very old ladies.
“Big bottom, drive me out of my mind, how can I leave this Behind?”
So, if you want to go to the comedy (and rock and roll) nursing home and spend some time watching to three old men who look like old ladies try and fail to capture the truly remarkable magic of their younger years, then check out Spinal Tap II. It is good for a few laughs I suppose.
But if you really, truly want to have a fantastically funny time…go watch the original Spinal Tap, then watch Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, three of the greatest comedies ever made.
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