Rob Reiner did have quite a good streak back in the day—from Stand by Me to Princess Bride to Misery to A Few Good Men…all until he tripped over himself with the baffling Elijah Wood ‘comedy’ North, which felt like an AI trying so hard to grasp the concept of family humor. Since then he’s stuck to more low-key productions, but now it looks like he’s returning to my personal favorite from his—This is Spinal Tap, the king of mockumentaries, which etched itself into the nomenclature with its quotability and kickstarted the greatest fake band of them all.
And in this age where we’re seeing the ends or twilights of many a high-partying rocker from back in the day like Ozzy, perhaps it felt a bit apropos beyond just nostalgia to go back to it—still, does Spinal Tap still move like Jagger or is getting as wrinkly as Rod Stewart?
Reiner himself returns as ‘documentary director’ Marty DiBergi, who may or may not be of the USS Ooral Sea, recording the comeback of the titular band—made up of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. Once big in the 80s, these musicians decide to reunite so they can once more comically butcher everything from heavy metal to folk.
With the days of hair metal long gone, the movie doesn’t quite feel like it’s touching on the glitzy reality as the original one was—and without that thread connecting it, let’s get it out of the way, it’s not quite as memorable. But it still provides some chuckles nevertheless—this time with Chris Addison as a promoter who’s one big jab at the modern music industry. The awesome Valerie Franco joins the cast as a drummer who’s trying to avoid the curse of bizarre deaths that have afflicted all the other percussionists in the band, and that’s before we get into some memorable cameos by Paul McCartney and even Elton John.
There’s enough self-awareness over the age of the members—and well, given how many rock talents are still going on while pushing 80, why not I guess. At the same time, things do feel just a bit more limited this time as a result—there’s still amusement to be had, but the iron could only strike hottest forty years ago when the subject matter was, well, hot.
As a result, for fans of the first movie, there’s plenty of chuckles and antics to amuse—it won’t match it, but who was expecting it to. Anyone who hasn’t seen the first movie, well, I definitely suggest starting with that one either way—this one makes for a decent encore, but not quite a titanic comeback.
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