Year: 2025
Director: Rob Reiner
So can lightning strike twice? The original is of course up there with Airplane as the funniest film of all time, and it’s probably the film I have seen most often in my life (due in no small part to weekly Saturday night viewings in my student years, after the pub, accompanied by cheap cans and questionable hash).
I’ll keep this spoiler free but the good news is that it is intermittently amusing and no disgrace to the first. It helps that Rob Reiner is on board, and that having reprised the characters over the years the main trio of Guest, McKean and Shearer slip into their personae without the sometimes trying effort which the casts of Guest’s other films brought to their parts.
The basic set up is that Ian Faith has left his daughter, Hope, Tap’s contract in his will, and it includes a stipulation that they must perform one last show. This causes problems with the structure of the film which takes a while to get going as a result. Whereas the first was based around a disintegrating band on tour, allowing for regular songs, this one builds up to a single performance (which might be both cathartic and triumphant). The songs, once they start, are largely in the band’s New Orleans rehearsal space.
Forty years have passed, and it’s shows in the trio’s haggard appearance (‘They’re all very old’, observes Hope Faith), and there can’t help be intimations of mortality, notably in a new Derek Smalls song. They don’t overplay this though, just as we have all got used to rock stars in their 70s still playing big shows. Speaking of aging rock stars, the guest cameos were a cause for concern before I saw the film but they work perfectly well. Aside from a few high profile drummers, reluctant to sign their own death sentences by accepting the vacant position in Tap, Paul McCartney shows up for the rehearsals and Elton doubles his fun by appearing at the gig as well.
Due homage is paid to This is Spinal Tap, and there may be a few too many nods in its direction, but if you enjoyed the first film you can go and see this one confident that you’ll have a good time. But maybe not all the time – a continuity howler where Chris Addison’s jacket repeatedly went from buttoned to unbuttoned between shots made me want to howl.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
This is Spinal Tap of course.
Phew. I can go now. I’ve been cheering my nails. The Indy gave it a terrible review but their reviewer thinks she’s Julie Burchill, NME, 1977.
Autocorrect… chewing
That Indie review is, to quote itself, ‘ so hermetic that it loses its ability to function as it was intended to’. For those who have had the pleasure not to read it, yes, that is typical of the prose. As I watched the film I wondered if Alex James was a reference rather than an oversight.
Shit isn’t it. The Indy has a lot of journalists like that. They write utter drivel which I don’t actually read but you know what it’s going to be from the headline.
I think any terrible reviews might fit in with the “brand” quite well. I’ll be seeing it anyway.
In another thread there is the clip of them doing an overrated/underrated questionnaire. I loved the part about OnlyFans. David and Nigel are clueless about it really and babble on, but Derek just chips in with a decisive one-word answer – “overpriced”.
It’s funny they were considered aging rock stars at the time 40 years ago!!
I’m really torn. The original is so perfect and has been such a huge part of my life for four decades now that I don’t want to taint it. I’m guessing it’s a lot more scripted, with lots of forced callback jokes to Stonehenge, amps going to 11 etc. I’d love it if this was good, but it’s not going to be, is it?
Mark Kermode’s review is worth a watch…..
Useful, thanks.
I can’t find much to disagree with in that.
I’m going Thursday so I’ll listen to the review after.
As M Kermode says the other Rutles weren’t involved with Can’t Buy Me Lunch and had no say in it. I watched it once and don’t need to see it again.
All of the mains were involved with this, it possibly hit a 3 out of 11. No tension and I’m afraid not much comedy and I don’t need to see it again.
Might watch it when it comes on one of the streamers, but won’t be too bothered if it doesn’t.
As one of the film’s cameos once said “you can’t reheat a soufflé”