Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

I remember getting MGM’s This Is Spinal Tap DVD when it was released in 2000 and being giddy at all the special features. The deleted scenes were longer than the movie, revealing that a ton of great stuff was sacrificed in the service of making the final cut an essentially perfect comedy. But alas, while watching Spinal Tap II, I shuddered to think what was on the cutting room floor, because the vast majority of what made it to the screen was woefully unworthy of the first film’s legacy.

It’s all of the improv with very little of the magic, an overbearing preoccupation with band friction (which doesn’t earn its resolution), and plenty of jokes so tepid they barely register as jokes. Paul Shaffer, with maybe 10 seconds of screen time, has arguably the funniest line in the movie, but otherwise the abundance of celebrity cameos adds virtually nothing, and extended sequences with Paul McCartney and Elton John do so at great length. In the final insult, the band’s new drummer’s inevitable meeting with her mortality is remarkably uninspired.

I went into the movie cold, purposely avoiding all marketing and promotion, hoping for the best but knowing better than to expect much. But it seems I never could have tempered my expectations enough to find this sequel anything but disappointing.