“Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” in theaters Friday, is a fun reunion with the fictional heavy metal band that adds some funny new characters and sketches.
10 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, in theaters Friday, serves as a double legacy sequel of sorts. It is a sequel to 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap, but also to the world of music in the ensuing decades, including the reunions and farewell tours of major real-life acts.
Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner returns as his character Marty DiBergi, a filmmaker who meets Hope Faith (Kerry Godliman), the daughter of Spinal Tap’s former manager Ian Faith. When Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood perform a cover of “Big Bottom”, Hope sees the potential in a Spinal Tap reunion.
Marty seeks out the original members of Spinal Tap and finds Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) now owns a cheese shop, while David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) writes scores for podcasts and “on hold” messages, one of the film’s cleverest bits. Meanwhile, Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) owns a glue museum after an unwise crypto venture.
There’s not a lot of conflict between Nigel, David and Derek. All three of them seem to want the opportunity to reunite and try to make it work.
Nigel and David literally struggle to get back in harmony, however, as Nigel can’t play some of David’s compositions and David objects to some of Nigel’s new effects.
