The Return of

THIS IS SPINAL TAP SURELY RANKS as one of the funniest films of all time, so when The Return of Spinal Tap surfaced in my local HMV I bought it without question. The hype was good, and although I knew it couldn't possibly live up to expectations, I was pleasantly optimistic. The optimism was short-lived. Despite what it said on the jacket, this 'new feature-length rockumentary' is mostly footage of an actual concert given by Spinal Tap at the Royal Albert Hall. The concert footage has been spun out to make a feature-length TV special by padding with new background material featuring the band and other members of the original cast.

Leaving aside the concert for a moment, the new material is generally reminiscent of the original movie, although it doesn't really live up to it. What began as subtle satire is now laid on with a trowel; for example, Nigel's charming and just-plausible 'these go to eleven' gormlessness descends into farce as he introduces us to the garden shed where he produces such unlikely innovations as the amplifier capo and a folding wine glass. Most of the low-budget 'interviews' catching up with other characters from the movie simply diminish the original by reducing things to silliness.

If Tap can't survive the transition from satire to slapstick, the music speaks for itself - and what it says is, 'I'm crap'. I don't know who conceived the notion of an actual Tap concert, and it seems to me that whoever turned up had somehow failed to get in on the joke. The whole point of This is Spinal Tap was that the band is pretentious, tasteless and largely talentless, so it's an enormous irony that they somehow managed to fill the Albert Hall. However ironic, it's still a painful and dreary experience squirming through the banal songs, despite a commendably musical performance by the cast.

What more can I say? I cried, cried, cried all the way home.