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
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
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