Rob Reiner's Spinal Tap II: The End Continues fails to recapture the broad comic success of the 1984 original, critic Brian Viner wrote, saying the sequel "falls a bit flat" despite high-profile cameos and the return of the original creative team.
Viner said the principals — Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer — reprise their roles and still look the part of aging heavy-metal stars, and that guest appearances from Paul McCartney and Elton John add sparkle. But the reviewer concluded the film produces only a handful of genuinely explosive laughs and too often strains to be funny as it follows the band through a reunion concert after a years-long rift.
Viner outlined the film's set-up: Nigel Tufnel (Guest) is found in a cheese-and-guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed, David St Hubbins (McKean) composes on-hold music in California, and Derek Smalls (Shearer) runs a glue museum in London. The former manager Ian Faith has died and his daughter Hope brokers a comeback show. The reviewer singled out a number of sly references to the original — a Stonehenge gag and rehearsal scenes in New Orleans — but said many of the jokes push past the line between clever and merely silly.
The review noted that Reiner returns as the guileless interviewer Marty DiBergi and that comic supporting turns include Chris Addison as promoter Simon Howler. Viner said the best of the film's moments are one-liners and small touches, but that the sequel lacks the effortless satirical bite that made This Is Spinal Tap a landmark mockumentary.
Viner's column also assessed several other new releases. Francis Lawrence's adaptation of Stephen King's early novel The Long Walk is described as a "blisteringly nasty" dystopian thriller. Set in a near-future totalitarian United States, the film follows a group of young men in an endurance contest in which only one will survive; those who stop or fall below the minimum speed are killed. Viner singled out performances by Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson and noted Mark Hamill's turn as a ruthless army officer. The film is rated 15 and runs 108 minutes, the reviewer added.
On the return-of-television-epic front, Viner reviewed Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and said the third feature film continues the series' tradition of compressing many storylines into a short running time. The film, he wrote, is dedicated to the late Dame Maggie Smith and features departures for established characters, including the retirement of butler Mr. Carson. Viner described the plot as thin and formulaic but said the film offers familiar comforts to fans of the franchise.
Smaller releases earned contrasting notices. Islands (15, 123 minutes) was called a slow-moving but effective psychodrama set at a resort, with Sam Riley playing a jaded tennis coach whose life is disrupted by the arrival of a disaffected family. By contrast, The Man in My Basement (15, 115 minutes) was judged an overwrought psychological thriller with a convoluted plot despite capable performances from Willem Dafoe and Corey Hawkins.
Among the most warmly received titles in Viner's round-up was The Golden Spurtle (PG, 75 minutes), a documentary about the world porridge-making championships in a Scottish village. Viner praised Constantine Costi's film as a celebration of eccentricity and called it "deliciously quirky".
Viner's reviews place Spinal Tap II alongside a varied slate of films this week, from large-scale adaptations and franchise fare to intimate dramas and documentary curiosities. He noted that the original Spinal Tap's place in film history makes any sequel a difficult proposition, and that while the new film contains moments of charm, it rarely matches the satirical precision of its predecessor.