Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: September 12, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
18
Negative:
3

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerSep 10, 2025
Spinal Tap II holds onto the real sense that these men, despite everything they've been through, have loved each other almost their entire lives. Guest and McKean in particular met in college in the late 1960s, and they've been playing music together ever since; there's something beautiful about the fact that they've found their way to this moment, after so many decades — one where the only laughter they care about is each other's. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesGemma WilsonSep 16, 2025
It doesn’t have the same wild unfamiliar sparkle as the original, but that’s the point. The joys of this film are similar to the joys of a beloved (real) band’s reunion concert: watching decades of personal and musical history play out onstage, cheering for the revolutionaries of their day and, in the case of the actor-creators of Spinal Tap, seeing what more than 40 years of commitment to a bit — and to each other — really looks like. Read full review
80
iChristina NewlandSep 11, 2025
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues may not have the brown M&M joke or cultish appeal of its original, but it gets great and lovable mileage out of just how good those first jokes were – mini-Stonehenge replica included. You’d have to be a curmudgeon not to think it was fantastic fun. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 11, 2025
There’s lots of good stuff here, some witty reboots and reworkings of gags from the first film and sprightly update appearances from minor, half-forgotten characters currently residing in the “where-are-they-now?” file. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeSep 10, 2025
None of which is to suggest the film backs away from great gags that, as it was in 1984, continue deep into hilarious improvisation over the end credits. Read full review
75
Original-CinKaren GordonSep 11, 2025
This is Spinal Tap is now a movie classic. I wish I could say the follow up Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is as good. But, alas, it doesn’t really touch the beloved original. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 11, 2025
In the end, it all amounts to something of a cinematic victory lap, but one played with finesse and just enough fresh material to make the encore worth it. In a world of bloated reboots and soulless sequels, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” earns its place on the setlist. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonSep 11, 2025
This time, director Rob Reiner and his cast take aim at comeback concerts and the documentaries they often spawn. In other words, “Spinal Tap II” is both a satire and an example of what it’s satirizing. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussSep 10, 2025
It may not be as perfectly clever or uproarious as it was in Tap’s heyday, but we all get old and neither need nor want humor as loud as we used to. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 11, 2025
The good news is that Spinal Tap II mostly builds on the legacy of the earlier film, instead of just recycling its best jokes for nostalgia’s sake. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensSep 11, 2025
Spinal Tap II’s scanty, improvisation-based script means that the story is short on suspense or forward movement; this is a gentle, nostalgic collection of sketches that riff on a four-decade-long experiment in musical and comic collaboration. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithSep 11, 2025
If “Spinal Tap II” doesn’t quite earn an 11 on a scale of one to 10, I’d say it rates a strong 7. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 11, 2025
It’s almost always pleasant to hang out with old friends, particularly when no one overstays their welcome. The good news about “Spinal Tap II” is that everyone involved seems to have understood the assignment, which makes for a genial 83 minutes of soft jokes and jowls. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Noel RansomeSep 10, 2025
There’s a kind of procedural nostalgia at work here. It’s not as newborn ridiculous, and certainly not as innovative, but the film knows the game it’s playing – or, in Tap’s case, the music it has to keep hammering out. It doesn’t hit eleven, but it doesn’t have to. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 10, 2025
The affectionate reunion of alter-kocker rockers plays like a greatest hits of past laughs, building to a thrilling live performance of songs fans know by heart, featuring guest appearances from several bona fide music gods. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckSep 10, 2025
The humor is very droll and deadpan but, as the above examples indicate, more chuckle-inducing than hysterically funny. As with so many belated follow-ups, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues mainly coasts on nostalgia and affection for the original. Read full review
70
ColliderAidan KelleySep 10, 2025
That being said, if you are part of that target demographic, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues has a lot to enjoy. That's especially true when the film shows off a few surprisingly heartwarming moments, which were definitely not as prevalent in the original story. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSep 12, 2025
As a comedic confrontation with the inevitability of aging and death, it’s no “Jackass Forever.” But it’s funny and a wee bit poignant, and the main trio has the good taste not to ask us to feel too deeply about three guys whose chief appeal is that they’re miserable and petty and witheringly sarcastic and don’t try to hide it. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeSep 11, 2025
The careful balance of “stupid and clever” that solidified the legend of the first film is less steady in its much-belated sequel. Read full review
60
Radio TimesTerry StauntonOct 3, 2025
There’s still a good time to be had, but such beloved characters deserve a better film than this – and seeing as the actors wrote it they’ve only themselves to blame. Read full review
60
NMEMatt MaytumSep 19, 2025
While The End Continues obviously won’t be talked about in such hallowed terms in four decades’ time, it thankfully doesn’t sully its own reputation, and it sure is pleasant to be back in the company of the band again. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 11, 2025
What a relief, then, that this isn’t terrible – though to get the best out of it, you may wish to convince yourself that it’s going to be. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerSep 11, 2025
It’s nice to see Reiner, McKean, Guest, and Shearer acknowledge their age and have some fun again, even if they never come close to matching the invention and creativity of the old Spinal Tap. Read full review
60
IGNClint GageSep 10, 2025
While it picks up threads from the original, like the mysterious curse of their dying drummers or stage props misbehaving, nothing gets anywhere close to the original. Read full review
58
IndieWireRyan LattanzioSep 10, 2025
This is a movie that would probably be really funny if you were high. The laughs are mostly dry and deadpan, depending on your closeness to and fondness for the material — in other words, very much in line with the mockumentary world of producer Christopher Guest. Read full review
50
The RevealScott TobiasOct 2, 2025
The best scenes in Spinal Tap II are either solid improvisational sessions between the three leads as the band tries to recover its long chemistry or sidebars with Nigel. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 17, 2025
When the key comic minds behind that singular sendup of past-prime glory-seekers aim to rekindle their magic, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues leaves one thinking some classics are better left in their original, endlessly re-playable states. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 12, 2025
While the film does deliver a few solid laughs (though none that truly hit an 11), it ultimately falls flat, feeling less like a theatrical mockumentary and more like an overlong streaming special. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearSep 12, 2025
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is the sequel that many of us have waited for, if not exactly the sequel we wanted. It’s amusing rather than hilarious, gently ribbing rather than gutbusting. Read full review
50
Washington PostTy BurrSep 10, 2025
I regret to report that Spinal Tap has become Dad Rock. Read full review
50
Screen DailyNikki BaughanSep 10, 2025
Perhaps unsurprisingly – and intentionally – Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is a much gentler affair, intended to affectionately lampoon those ageing musicians who struggle to retain their creative spark and trade heavily in nostalgia. There is plenty of that here – the film essentially retreads old ground and gags – but the sharp wit of the original is sadly lacking. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 10, 2025
It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever, a couple of not-so-wise men said a long time ago — and in a better movie. Read full review
45
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerSep 11, 2025
Beyond a handful of vaguely contemporary references – podcasts; crypto; Stormy Daniels – there’s little sense of the present in Spinal Tap II, not even of the band being particularly out of touch with it. It’s been four decades since the first film! Shouldn’t their resentments be pettier, their epic reconvening more desperate? Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreSep 16, 2025
This Is Spinal Tap is a comedy about how the desire to be seen as a rock god collides with the humiliations of actually being human, and the visual of a group of guys in their 70s and 80s unable to move on from the styles of their youthful heyday is as effective a continuing riff on this theme as any. It’s also the only one fully realized by the new film. Read full review
40
EmpireJohn NugentSep 11, 2025
This collection of tired jokes is enough to prompt the question, “What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?” Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreySep 10, 2025
Then again, could a film in which a band of elder statesmen consider a loose collection of half-baked thoughts to be art itself be a satire of how some music legends like to conduct themselves? Maybe. But then you’d think under those circumstances I’d be laughing more. Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherSep 10, 2025
It just coasts, with breathtaking laziness, on the power of nostalgia, and it seemingly hopes that the sight of our beloved trio gathered together, mostly on chairs and improvising badly, will be enough in itself. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 12, 2025
A sequel to This is Spinal Tap, the mockumentary that really invented that label, can’t help but play as winded, gassed, joked-out and pointless. Read full review
38
The Associated PressMark KennedySep 10, 2025
Spinal Tap II is filled with ghosts. It’s like watching a cover band playing the hits but then realizing it’s actually the original band onstage after all. Read full review
30
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsSep 11, 2025
No-one has a clue what they’re doing or what the purpose of this slip-shod, opportunist enterprise is. The film pays such heavy and pummelingly-consistent homage to the unimpeachable 1984 original, This is Spinal Tap, that the whole thing starts to look unseemly and self-satisfied. Read full review
More From This Movie

57 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL