I finally watched Spinal Tap II : The End Continues.

My opinion is that it’s an enjoyable movie, but sadly not a worthy sequel.

Having rewatched the original just before this it was very clear in my mind while watching this follow-up.

The first movie had a simple premise. A once great band is now struggling to stay relevant and together, but in the end overcome their issues.

The premise for this movie is the band playing one last gig as per a loophole in their contract requires them to get back to together.

Fundamental to the originals story was their manager Played perfectly by ‘Tony Hendra’. His passing in real life has meant that Chriss Addison has taken a similar role. But instead of the nuanced character played by Tony, Addison feels underused as a cartoon villain.

The 3 main Tapp members play the aging rockers to perfection, And are totally believable. They do a decent enough job but lacks classic ‘turn it up to 11’ scenes.. despite some efforts involving cheese and glue.

I’d say the real issue with the movie is also its strength. Which is its many superstar cameo’s.

Since the near mythical status of the original.. there is clearly a lot of good will for Stars to appear. But when Elton John, or Paul McCartney turn up, it just slows the jokes down. They never seemed to really write good reasons for them to be in the scenes.. except.. “they just turned up at their rehearsal”. And seemed to take up a lot of the movies runtime and they feel like guest stars and not integral parts of the movies plot.

But there are some genuinely amusing bits, and I did chuckled all the way through.

I’m glad I got to see what Spinal Tapp are up to all of these years later.

But I doubt this will be considered a classic.

It’s not bad.. it’s just that it had a lot to live up to.

I can certainly see me watching it again at some point.