5 h. ago BRIAN VINER reviews Spinal Tap II: The End Continues: Even with names like McCartney and Elton... Spinal Tap hit a few bum notes in spoof sequel

Not many films are revered quite like This Is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner's 1984 spoof which is often credited with pioneering the 'mockumentary' genre.

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24 h. ago Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review – rockers return for mockusequel of pin

Enter the Tapocalypse as Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner return in a still-funny, cameo-studded telling of the hapless band’s final gigLegendary faux rockers Spinal Tap, with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as, respectively, lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel, lead singer David St Hubbins and bassist Derek Smalls, return in a cameo-studded rockusequel – or, rather, mockusequel – about the band’s contractually enforced and horribly ill-fated one-off reunion gig in New Orleans. It’s their first time playing together since a mysterious reported row between David and Nigel in 2009 brought the Tap bandwagon to a halt.And to paraphrase the Smiths: that joke is still funny it’s not too close to home and it’s not too near the bone but it is close, and you might have to work a little bit harder to remember how you felt the first time you saw the original. There’s lots of good stuff here, some witty reboots and reworkings of gags from the first fil...

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29 h. ago Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review: the rocks gods of mockumentary turn it up to, er, 10½

Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest and co and back for one last blow-out with Elton John and Paul McCartney adding the superstar sparks

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29 h. ago Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review – a startlingly unfunny sequel

It might be the point that this belated follow-up to the 1984 classic is irrelevant, half-baked and poorly timed – but where are the jokes?

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8 d. ago As the velvet curtain comes down on Downton Abbey, it feels like a warm bath: BRIAN VINER reviews Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

After 15 years, six television series and two feature films - not to mention a peerage for its creator, Julian Fellowes - the heavy velvet curtains are finally swishing shut on Downton Abbey.

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1 week ago The Wizard Of The Kremlin review: Jude Law is riveting as a humiliated Putin in this razor sharp political thriller, raves BRIAN VINER

It is a riveting account of how political power evolved in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and how it all ended up in the hands of a former KGB agent.

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1 week ago BRIAN VINER reviews The Wizard Of The Kremlin: Jude's latest big screen tyrant... Putin (with a Sarf London twang)

BRIAN VINER: It is a riveting account of how political power evolved in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and how it all ended up in the hands of a former KGB agent.

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1 week ago BRIAN VINER reviews Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein: More a dark fairy tale about fatherhood than a horror film... despite the slicing

There have been well over 200 screen interpretations since the first in 1910, and now the mighty Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has had a crack.

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2 w. ago Jay Kelly review: George Clooney's new film is a real bore, writes BRIAN VINER

Expectations of this Netflix comedy, by writer-director Noah Baumbach, were sky-high.

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