Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

The decades-later sequel coasts on cheap nostalgia and celebrity cameos

Comedy sequels are notorious for the fall in quality, this is magnified especially with decades-later sequels, which seem more intent on cashing in on nostalgia than attempting to deliver original jokes. Such has been the case with Zoolander 2 (2016), Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020), Coming 2 America (2021), or Happy Gilmore 2 (2025). We now get the attempt to break this cursed reputation with the sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025).

Spinal Tap II is 41 years later sequel to This is Spinal Tap (1984), a revolutionary film in its own day for pioneering the modern day mockumentary. In fact, many people in the 1980s mistook the fictional band as real, duping some real musicians like Ozzy Osbourne. This was largely due to the guerrilla style filmmaking and heavy improvisation, making scenes and dialogue seem natural and organic instead of staged.

In Spinal Tap II we follow the reunion of the fictional British rock back Spinal Tap, as they get together to play a reunion concert in New Orleans. The original trio of lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and base player Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) all return as does the director of their mockumentary – and real Spinal Tap II director – Martin DiBergi (Rob Reiner).

The original This is Spinal Tap looked at a band on the descent as their initial popularity began to wane, their concert venues got smaller, and infighting aggravated their concerts. It was done with heavy improvisation paired with a restraint that allowed naturalism and believability to their characters. Many real bands and rockstars like Led Zeppelin or Steven Tyler found the mockumentary spookily accurate to the tensions of touring life and the dynamics in a band. Spinal Tap II, however, falls into the tropes of many legacy comedy sequels, of playing it too safe and coasting on nostalgia.

The majority of Spinal Tap II takes place in a rehearsal room as the band banter and call back to gags of the original. Given the popularity of the first film, Spinal Tap II also falls into the trope of casting celebrity fans of the franchise to fill in runtime. We thus get visits from Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks, and Questlove amongst others. Yet they don’t amount to much except providing the jolt of recognizing a familiar face.

Thankfully the performances from the central trio remain committed and electric. It truly feels as if we’re revisiting the same characters from the 1984 original, and you believe the trajectories that their lives have taken in the ensuing decades. Yet they are hamstrung by having more elaborate jokes and gags that rely on props and scripting rather than the naturalism of the original. Nevertheless, there are still moments of improvisational gold that have you chuckling out loud, one reference to a fictional Bruce Springsteen biography had me crying in tears.

Like the original, Spinal Tap II keeps its runtime short, under 1 hour and 30 minutes, forgoing the bloating that many legacy sequels adopt. Yet you struggle to see if Reiner and the lead trio have anything to say or justification to revisit these characters. As a result, Spinal Tap II ends up coasting on nostalgia and cameo appearances to entertain you, and while it makes for a harmless pastime, it pales in forgettable fashion to the groundbreaking original.

5.9/10