Film Review: Torrente 2: Mission in Marbella (Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella, 2001)

Spain can be proud of having one of the very few European cinema industries able to beat Hollywood at its game. This might be explained with relatively more creative freedom and unwillingness to bow to the demands of “political correctness”. This is best embodied in the anti-hero, played by Santiago Segura, that was the title character of 1998 action comedy Torrente, the Dumb Arm of the Law. Its success led to 2001 sequel Torrente 2: Mission in Marbella, which was, like the previous film, also written and directed by Segura.

Segura returns in the role of Jose Luis Torrente, former Madrid policeman and self-appointed enforcer of street justice with deplorable racist, sexist and homophobic views and even more obnoxious personal habits. Torrente’s crime fighting efforts have brought him a lot of money but when the plot of this film belongs, he has already lost it all in casinos of Spanish popular tourist resort of Marbella. Torrente is there forced to make ends meet by working as private investigator, exploiting the couple of half-retarded youths who for some seemingly unfathomable reasons became his followers. During one of seemingly routine investigations Torrente stumbles into major conspiracy that threatens entire Marbella and also has to face some secrets of his own past.

Segura doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel and, for the most part, employs the formula that worked in the previous film. Humour is not only black but also irreverent, while Segura’s talent as comedian guarantees that the audience will be fascinated rather than revolted with outrageous aspects of Torrente. What is refreshing in this film is use of exotic locations of Marbella for plot setting, which also allows Segura to play with James Bond cliches. Although some of the gags look recycled and although some of them are clearly made for Spanish audience only, Torrente 2 is still a very funny and entertaining film. During its original theatrical run it broke box office records in Spain, which led to three more sequels.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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