‘Spinal Tap II’ Forgets What Made the Original Work
After more than 40 years, no one was expecting the follow-up to This is Spinal Tap to be an 11 out of 11. But Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is a frustratingly unambitious sequel that somehow flubs the basic storytelling techniques that made the first movie work so well.
The sequel is watchable and amusing, but there’s no emotional engine to keep the story moving.
The first movie milked dramatic tension out of the strained relationship between childhood friends Nigel and David, which becomes exacerbated when David’s girlfriend Jeanine oversteps her bounds and starts managing the group. The sequel attempts to do something similar, suggesting that David is still pissed at Nigel for a mysterious incident that happened 15 years ago. But the audience is left in the dark about what it was — until the very end, that is, when we get a baffling explanation that offers zero emotional resonance.
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When Nigel walks out on the band in the ‘84 film, it’s a genuinely dramatic moment. When a member of Tap does something similar in the sequel, it means nothing to us, because we’re given no context. And it’s resolved almost immediately.
There’s a lot about This Is Spinal Tap that’s genuinely sad, too. After all, this is a band that loses top billing to a puppet show at one point. The threat of cultural irrelevance and the specter of old age are constantly nipping at Spinal Tap’s heels.
The sequel had ample opportunity to similarly inject pathos into the story, but opted to keep things breezy and inconsequential. After all, Spinal Tap are now senior citizens, playing a concert for the first time in over a decade. But apart from a brief rendition of Harry Shearer’s new song “Rockin’ in the Urn,” there are no reflections on mortality, nor is there any sense of anxiety around their return to the stage.
Is one viral video (in which Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood cover “Big Bottom”) enough to sell a stadium’s-worth of tickets? Have these near-octogenarians aged out of the live music game entirely? These questions are never addressed.
The movie does set up an antagonist of sorts in the form of a promoter named Simon. But even that amounts to nothing. For one thing, his ideas aren’t all terrible (at one point he’s lambasted for bringing a fitness instructor to help get the group in shape). And his actions end up having literally zero impact on the climatic concert. In a better movie, Simon would have been a narrative obstacle for the band to overcome, rather than a minor annoyance who unceremoniously exits the narrative for no good reason.
Then there’s Marty DiBergi. Rob Reiner is obviously a great filmmaker and a funny performer, but he seems to have forgotten that some of his biggest laughs playing in This Is Spinal Tap were when he was completely silent, paying serious attention to the band’s ridiculousness.
In Spinal Tap II, Marty/Reiner is a bit of a chatterbox, rarely allowing his co-stars to improvise without interruption. Trying to make Marty a source of comedy also violates the reality of the “documentary.” For instance, in the opening scene, the fictional director clumsily knocks over a stack of chairs while addressing the camera. Why would he use that take? Wouldn’t he do it again? These docs are supposed to exist within the Spinal Tap-verse. We buy goofy antics from the band being filmed, but not the guy who is doing the filming.
One of the best examples of how this movie borrows the superficial aspects of the first film without recreating the substantive parts is Stonehenge. As the trailers have already revealed, the reunion concert’s Stonehenge prop is far too big this time, rather than too small.
Why? It’s not clear. In This Is Spinal Tap, Nigel fucks up the measurements, confusing feet with inches when drawing his diagram. And it plays an important part in the story: The set piece was suggested as a way for the band to bounce back from the “Smell the Glove” cover debacle. Instead, the screw-up leads Ian the manager to quit after being pushed by David and Jeanine.
This time around, it feels as though Reiner and company are simply checking a box of fan expectations.
There are some laughs to be found in Spinal Tap II, but the magic of the first film was that it found a way to make us actually care about these ridiculous characters. This one had all the right ingredients to do the same, but they bungled the recipe.
