Blu-ray Review – Spinal Tap II: The End Goes On (2025)

      Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, 2025.

      Directed by Rob Reiner.

      Starring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, and Valerie Franco.

      SYNOPSIS:

      Spinal Tap II: The End Continues makes its debut on home video, unfortunately lacking any bonus features. While I felt the film overlooked some clear opportunities for humor, I overall enjoyed it and believe it stands as a fitting follow-up to the 1984 classic, This is Spinal Tap.

      Have you ever finished watching a movie and thought, “They really missed some chances here!” as the credits rolled? That was my impression of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. While it's a very funny sequel to 1984's This is Spinal Tap, it seems to ignore the significant changes in the music industry since that time.

      The premise revolves around director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) checking in with the band Spinal Tap after 40 years for their reunion and farewell concert. (First missed opportunity: Acknowledgements of bands like The Who, who have had multiple farewell tours.)

      Since the first film, lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) has shifted gears to run a cheese and guitar shop where customers can barter items and plays in a local folk band (yes, he uses an electric guitar). Lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) has begun composing music for true-crime podcasts and on-hold music for customer service lines, winning a “Holdy” award for the latter. Bass player Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) operates his New Museum of Glue in London and has composed a symphony titled Hell Toupee (get it?) performed with a philharmonic orchestra. The band's management has transitioned to Ian Faith’s daughter, Hope (Kerry Godliman), with Caucasian Jeff (C.J. Vanston) joining as the new keyboardist. Elton John and Paul McCartney also make an appearance to perform with the band; the former's involvement leads to predictably chaotic results.

      As expected, there is no drummer, which leads to a comically unsuccessful effort by the band to recruit Questlove, Lars Ulrich from Metallica, and Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their open audition ends in failure until Didi Crockett (Valerie Franco) arrives and impresses everyone. Marty asks her if she has any concerns about the gig, given that all the band's previous drummers have died in various ways, and she confidently believes she can avoid that curse.

      While Nigel and David bicker over the concert details and Derek attempts to mediate without success, Marty also reconnects with familiar faces from the first film: publicist Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher), who left her job and became a Buddhist due to the band's stress, and local PR guy Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer), who is now a used-car salesman. Both characters provide great "Where are they now?" moments.

      Additionally, Chris Addison joins the cast as promoter Simon Howler, who shows little interest in music and mostly focuses on inserting himself into events, such as when he and Hope decide to establish their own Hall of Fame after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rejects the band. Their venture oddly resembles an IHOP restaurant and seems more centered on them than the band itself.

      The film is filled with humorous moments, and the cast has great chemistry together. However, I was surprised that Spinal Tap II does not fully explore the transformations within the music industry since 1984. There are no jokes addressing how the band members have adapted to the era of iPods, illegal downloading of music from CDs, and the shift to a market where streaming has replaced album sales, making concerts the main source of income for most bands.

      Ultimately, I did enjoy Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and would recommend it to anyone who appreciated the original film. I couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps Reiner and the cast could have taken things further by addressing some of those missed chances. (Yes, I had to make that joke; not doing so would have been a missed opportunity for me.)

      Unfortunately, another missed opportunity is the absence of extras on this Blu-ray. Fans of the original film are likely familiar with the comprehensive edition Criterion released, which is now available on 4K Ultra HD for the first time. It seems there should have been some deleted scenes included, and it would have been nice for the cast to reunite for an audio commentary—Guest, McKean, and Shearer’s Criterion commentary where they discuss the movie as their characters is particularly amusing.

      Perhaps a future release will include additional features, although given the film’s underwhelming box office performance, it might take a boutique label acquiring the rights to make that happen. I