IMAX Sneak Premiere

by Madeline Bocaro

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is the follow-up to the early mock rock documentary This Is Spinal Tap, (which returned to theaters in 4K on its 41^st anniversary in summer 2025). Rob Reiner’s original 1984 film is a hard act to follow. It’s became a classic – with endless catch phrases echoing throughout the music world by fans and legends alike – for decades. Who can forget the amp with a volume setting of 11, the peapod prop that won’t open onstage, the erroneously miniature Stonehenge stage set, the detonating drummers, a headlining Puppet Show, ridiculous fighting between band members…

The success of the first film is likely due to the preposterous music actually being very good! Spinal Tap played live on L.A.’s Sunset Strip in the early 1980s prior to making the first film. They performed live again in 1992, 2001, 2007, 2009 (at Glastonbury Festival) and in 2024 (Spinal Tap One Night Only World Tour).

Much of the hilarity stems from the concocted band’s innocent buffoonery and that they are completely unaware of the offensiveness of their lyrics and album titles. The vaudevillian aspects of The Three Stooges meld with amplified verbal antics, conjuring what makes rock n’ roll so much fun in reality!

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues shows the band in good form, although much older. Strangely, they are not as ridiculous as some of the absurd real-life ageing rock stars embarking on endless “farewell” reunion tours, hobbling onstage in varied stages of decay.

II is also directed by Rob Reiner, who reprises his role as filmmaker Marty DiBergi, documenting the band. The original cast members are reunited; David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer).

Spoiler alert: We learn what the principal members have been up to in past decades. Nigel owns a shop in which he trades cheese and guitars. (He did not become a haberdasher). Derek is the proprietor of a glue museum. David had been writing hold music for telephones (he even won a Holdy award!) and has scored a film titled Night of the Assisted Living Dead (perhaps the funniest line in the entire film!)

We also find out what happened to other characters, who all have cameos. David’s girlfriend Jeanine (June Chadwick) has become a nun. Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher) converted to Buddhism after her stressful experience with Tap. Artie Fufkin (Paul Schrader) now sells used cars.

There are guest appearances by Sirs Elton John and Paul McCartney who both join in on rehearsal jams. Elton performs in the studio with Tap, and again onstage in the grand finale, to great detriment! Can’t wait to hear the full song that is being written by Derek in one scene, ‘Rockin’ in the Urn.’

Due to a Garth Brooks / Trisha Yearwood cover version of ‘Big Bottom,’ a Tap reunion show is ignited, driven by their late manager’s daughter Hope Faith, who has now inherited the Tap recording contract (and not much else) in his will. The ruthless publicist whom she hires has no regard for music, because he has a condition due to which he can’t hear it, nor play it.

The plot begins with this publicist’s idea of a career-booster… one or more of the members could actually die onstage. The band suggest something less fatal, perhaps a coma… and off we go…

Celebrity drummers appear via FaceTime, being asked to join Tap for their big reunion performance. All of them decline, for obvious reasons. In a succession of absurd in-person drummer auditions, Didi Crockett is phenomenal, and is wisely chosen.

New merchandising ideas include artisan Tap Water – which is exactly that. Bottled water from the tap, in a clear bottle shaped like the Stonehenge monument. And a proposed hall of fame – in which Spinal Tap is inducted, since they are not allowed in Cleveland’s rock hall (not even in the gift shop!)

Their amps now go way past 11 – to infinity. The plot wouldn’t be authentic without a big argument between David and Nigel right before the show, but again, it gets resolved just in time!

The climax is the big show. We get a medley of all their “hits” sounding bigger and better than ever. New stage props include an inflatable smoking, farting “big bottom,” which the band requested to be “toned down a bit.” The Stonehenge monument is reprised, this time in the correct size – involving everyone (including Elton John) in a near-death experience and hospitalization. The drummer uncharacteristically escapes this fate, but perhaps not at the end of the film.

 

 

I wish I could give this eleven stars, but the plot and situations could have been a bit more creative. The film is propelled by its dialogue – the hilarious banter between band members which is not as fast, nor as clever as it was in the original film. If nothing else, it’s still great to see our “OLD friends.”

Instead of various movie trailers prior to the screening, there were merch advertisements; a new Spinal Tap book, A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever, T-shirts, The End Continues vinyl records and CDs – containing new original songs and covers of classics with McCartney, Elton John and more. (Online, the band are promoting Liquid Death – a canned water, which comes in packs of 11).

Afterwards, there was an amusing Q & A via Zoom, with Reiner and the members of Tap who were at the Los Angeles screening at the Chinese theater. There was a gigantic inflatable Stonehenge monument to walk through at the entrance.

**

In a real-life Spinal Tap moment, I was in Islington (UK) in 2008, where the band Sparks played each of their 21 albums in 21 nights. Lost in the backstage labyrinth, I was with Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, trying to find our way to the front of the stage as he yelled out, “Rock n’ Roll!” Classic.

 

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