‘Spinal Tap II’ Review: The Band Is Older, Kind of Wiser and Still at 11

The, um, boys are back, 41 years later, with a sequel to the mockumentary (mockurockumentary?) that made the genre go to 11 – “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” gets the band back together for a gentler, but still funny, coda.

Documentarian Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner, director of both 1984’s “This Is Spinal Tap” and the also-largely improvised sequel) is back to capture the reunion concert of legendary heavy metal band Spinal Tap, 15 years after lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), guitarist and lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) last played together. Lifelong friends David and Nigel had a mysterious falling out, but they’ll have to put their differences aside to fulfill a contractual obligation to play one last show. 

The sequel moves considerably more slowly than the original’s joke-a-minute pace, which makes sense, as the principals are hovering around 80. It doesn’t brim with the divine idiocy that made the 1984 film such a bolt from the blue, but it does enjoy some gloriously dim moments. When we first check in on Nigel, he’s running a cheese shop. Which is also a guitar shop. It’s a kind of cheese-for-guitars or guitars-for-cheese barter operation, introduced by the precious pillock thus: “How do you make your life after rock and roll … cheese?” 

Guest has more doozies up his improv sleeve, but Nigel’s overall vibe in the sequel is less metal muppet than calm curmudgeon (or, for Tap fans, “clam curmudgeon”?). He’s still lovable, just less so given to the flights of foolishness that became oh-so quotable and more likely to be found face-timing his beloved or grumping it up over his rift with David. It’s almost as if he has grown up a little in four decades.

David has been scoring whatever he can, including hold music for phone calls, and Derek has been running a museum of glue (after all, he’s the spiritual adhesive of the band). The Derek humor is of the wittier stripe; among the books in his museum is “Polymers and Polygamy” and one of his headbanging solo projects, featuring Satan with hair that doesn’t look natural, is “Hell Toupee.” 

The story elements never gel, but how important is that, really? We know from the first scene they’re going to play the show. We’re fairly sure David and Nigel will chew through the wedge between them like delicious cheese. Other characters, including Chris Addison as the nominal antagonist, a clueless concert promoter afflicted with something like music deafness, float around the periphery as the band gets back into playing shape.

And by the way, Guest, McKean, and Shearer’s music chops have clearly improved in 40 years. We get a lot of them in rehearsal, and they sound pretty darn good. After 15 years apart, the band still fits like a glove they’d politely ask you to smell. In the original, the trio’s attempt at improvising vocal parts for “Heartbreak Hotel” made for a cringe gag, here, the first thing they do musically after the long layoff is step right into a quality three-part harmony. Progress!

The big news musically, though, is the arrival of a kick-ass new drummer, portrayed by veteran session player Valerie Franco. This dynamo absolutely blows the doors off; her endearing performance makes the audience worry for the first time about the welfare of a Tap drummer (as the band has infamously, fatally bad luck in that regard). 

Actually, that’s only part of the big musical news, as the film also enjoys high-profile rock-star cameos. One becomes an extended guest appearance, but another (no spoilers here) is downright mind-blowing – let’s just say it’s someone known for doing in their own music exactly what they hilariously criticize in the cameo … it’s some actual wow stuff that earned a huge reaction at the screening. There’s worlds-colliding fun to be had in seeing IRL legends worship at the altar of Tap.

Addison gets most of the non-band laughs, as when he explains of his Korean boy band, “They’re not Korean, but they identify as Korean.” The always-welcome John Michael Higgins, a staple of Guest’s stable of mockumentaries (e.g., “A Mighty Wind”), makes the most of a very brief appearance in Jack LaLanne drag. 

Thankfully, the film bypasses the “We’re too old for this” clichés. The magic they’re trying to regain isn’t musical; it’s the rekindling of David and Nigel’s lifelong friendship. That’s the meta quest of the film as well – can a movie that relied on crackling, live-wire improv transfer enough of that energy to power a sequel 40-plus years later? The answer is pretty much Yes.

Anyway, it doesn’t really matter that the plot threads aren’t compelling. We’re not here for that. We’re here to visit with these guys again after 40 years. And for Heavy Duty Rock and Roll. And a kinder, gentler “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” delivers enough to satisfy both demands.

A Bleecker Street release, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” opens exclusively in theaters on Sept. 12.