Among the choices on the 2025 film calendar have proved that it’s by no means too late to revisit an outdated basic. We’ve had I Know What You Did Final Summer season (which got here 19 years after its earlier installment), The Bare Gun (31 years after its final film), and now there’s Spinal Faucet II: The Finish Continues, which has each of these beat with 41 years separating it from 1984’s This Is Spinal Faucet. Critics have seen the extremely anticipated sequel to probably the greatest music films ever made, so does it go to 11?
Critics are weighing in on the return of Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Visitor), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), as filmmaker Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner) paperwork the band’s reunion and ultimate present. Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence offers the rockumentary Spinal Faucet II: The Finish Continues an A-, calling it a “joyful, music-filled journey” that’s worthy of the band’s legacy. She writes:
Spinal Faucet II shouldn’t be precisely a film you’d describe as being plot-heavy. To say it has a lot in the way in which of ahead momentum can be inaccurate — regardless of the countdown to their large present looming, there’s not a lot stress about whether or not they’ll make it to the stage or be successful. And but it nonetheless stands out as a deeply fulfilling viewing expertise, and a singular one: It’s a film about older males trying again at their lives and the relationships which have outlined them, in a manner that’s solely potential after not less than 5 a long time of real-life friendship.
Certainly, the trio have been taking part in collectively as Spinal Faucet for many years (and as The Folksmen from A Mighty Wind), so the comfortability between the actors provides to the nostalgia issue that The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck notes in his evaluation. There’s lots to take pleasure in, he says, inspiring giggles if not guffaws. The critic continues:
The humor could be very droll and deadpan however extra chuckle-inducing than hysterically humorous. As with so many belated follow-ups, Spinal Faucet II: The Finish Continues primarily coasts on nostalgia and affection for the unique, to the purpose the place it consists of cameos from such veterans of the primary movie as Fran Drescher and Paul Schaffer.
Clint Gage of IGN charges it an “Okay” 6 out of 10, saying it doesn’t stay as much as the unique, however with many followers contemplating it the funniest film they’ve seen of their life, he says it’s additionally form of unfair to anticipate it to. Rob Reiner and three stars are clearly having a blast being again collectively, and the result’s a comedy that’s “completely tremendous.” Gage writes:
The return of legendary metallic band Spinal Faucet, some 40 years after the documentary that charted their sluggish descent from relevance, is a nostalgic and welcome reunion tour. Sadly, it’s not a lot past that. Whereas it picks up threads from the unique, just like the mysterious curse of their dying drummers or stage props misbehaving, nothing will get wherever near the unique. It’s a excessive bar to set, and maybe asking an excessive amount of to comply with in such iconic footsteps after so a few years, however that’s the hazard baked-in to a undertaking like this.
Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire additionally offers it a middling grade of C+, saying this one shall be appreciated by those that love the primary film, followers of Christopher Visitor’s different mockumentaries, and viewers members who’re excessive. Says the critic:
A heart-on-its-sleeve, inoffensive, and amusing sequel in regards to the legacies we run away from solely to come back crashing again into them in center or later age, Spinal Faucet II: The Finish Continues is a film that may in all probability be actually humorous when you had been excessive. The laughs are principally dry and deadpan, relying in your closeness to and fondness for the fabric — in different phrases, very a lot in keeping with the mockumentary world of producer Christopher Visitor, from Finest in Present to A Mighty Wind.
John Nugent of Empire offers it simply 2 stars out of 5, saying the brilliance of This Is Spinal Faucet makes the frustration of Spinal Faucet II that rather more crushing. “It’s as unfunny as the unique was humorous,” writes Nugent, who continues:
Such absence of profitable comedy is simply heartbreaking. The one saving grace is that the band’s musicianship isn’t doubtful, from their first a cappella collectively to full-throated renditions of classics like ‘Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight’. Faucet might have misplaced a little bit of their mojo over time, however their rock chops are not less than nonetheless as loud as ever.
Most of the critics admit that The Finish Continues isn’t nearly as good because the 1984 cult basic, however contemplating how tall an order that’s, I don’t assume that ought to deter individuals from checking this one out when it hits theaters on Friday, September 12.