★★½ (2½ out of 4)
In the Orwellian year 1984, a rock mockumentary titled “This Is Spinal Tap” banged its way into theaters to show us what comic perfection looks like. It mocked rock and its pretensions in ways that are still killingly funny. As Tap superfan Jack Black once schooled me, “you always kill the thing you love.” And “Spinal Tap” loved the hell out of the glories and absurdities of rock and roll.
Hard cut to the sequel, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” in theaters this week a mere 41 years after the OG version. That’s hilarious all by itself. I will not even try to make a case that the sequel is the equal. Even at a scant 83 minutes, “Tap II” feels long and rambling, but if you join me in Tap fanhood, you wouldn’t miss it for the world.
This sequel is hardly the best inducement for 'Spinal Tap II' to keep on keepin’ on. But it’s a nostalgia trip that doesn’t make you hate it. Ignore the insults Nigel, David and Derek; granddad rock looks good on you.
The occasion is a reunion concert for Tap in New Orleans, so of course director Marty di Bergi, once again embodied by Rob Reiner, has been enlisted to record it for posterity no matter how fits, fights, feuds and egos have splintered the band in the interim.
The boys are back, looking like escapees from a nursing home run by sadists. At the screening I attended, a kid turned to his father and said rudely but not wrongly, “they look scary old.” Shut up, kid, your time will come.
Jowls and wigs vie for their closeups as we’re re-introduced to our metal rock gods on guitar and vocals, played by Americans pretending to be Brits. The great satirist Christopher Guest (“Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show”) is back as the married but ever-clueless Nigel Tufnel, who runs a cheese-and-guitar shop where you can barter one for the other. Harry Shearer, who does great voices on “The Simpsons”—Mr. Burns, YES —pops in as bassist Derek Smalls as he presides over a glue museum and crypto scams. Don’t laugh, these jobs are at least feasible.
Michael McKean, beloved in TV series from “Laverne and Shirley” to “Better Call Saul,” returns as David St. Hubbins, who plays in a tacky mariachi band with side hustles writing scores for horror films (“Night of the Assisted Living”) and hold music for smartphones. “Your Call Is Important to Us” won him a Holdie.
There’s also a search for a drummer. Previous candidates—their number goes to 11—have all died mysteriously, one from spontaneous combustion. Nonetheless, a courageous keeper is found in, of all things, a gay woman named Didi Crockett (Valerie Franco). When geezer Derek hits on her, the word is “cringe.”
And we’re off. Well, nothing as speedy as that sounds. With the band members pushing 80 or past it, the cameos from Sir Elton John, 78, and Sir Paul McCartney, 83, fit right in. There is a genuine attempt not to recycle old bits and songs, though snippets of “Sex Farm” and “Gimme Some Money” do sneak in. As for the newbie tracks, “Rockin’ In the Urn,” “Hell Toupee” and especially “The Devil’s Just Not Getting Old,” prove that our stars are still skilled musicians who can fill concert halls when they go on tour.
They’re also still the dudes we loved through youth and age. “The End Continues” is hardly the best inducement for “Spinal Tap II” to keep on keepin’ on. But it’s a nostalgia trip that doesn’t make you hate it. Ignore the insults Nigel, David and Derek; granddad rock looks good on you.