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TAP RUNS DRY
The Independent
|September 12, 2025
If the belated sequel to ‘This Is Spinal Tap’, the classic spoof rockumentary, is irrelevant and half-baked, that may be half the point. But, asks Clarisse Loughrey, where are the jokes?
Could it be that I just didn’t get the joke when it comes to Spinal Tap II: The End Continues? Maybe all that meandering self-indulgence was intentional.
Maybe the fact that this sequel to the 1984 comedy spends an enormous chunk of its hour-and-24minute runtime on cameos by Paul McCartney and Elton John is in itself a meta-commentary on the inherent narcissism of self-produced documentary portraits of musicians?
Or is this merely a delusion created to stomach the fact that a film concocted by a returning Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer - who together essentially birthed the mockumentary genre - could be so startlingly unfunny?
This story is from the September 12, 2025 edition of The Independent.
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