Torrente 2: Mission in Marbella

Santiago Segura has made it again. He has an unique sense of rhythm, a natural gift for comedy (as an actor, director and writer) and an unusual capacity of extracting acting abilities to non-professional actors. Of course the heart of this movie is this unforgettable character, Torrente played wonderfully by Segura but there are unexpected surprises in the cast: while Gabino Diego is excellent as usual it's shocking to view Jose Luis Moreno (a famous spanish TV showman) playing a James Bond typical villain look-a-like and he succeeds. To the spanish viewers the best part of the film will be the incredible number of cameos that there are: to some TV "freaks" like "Gran Hermano"'s Iñigo, catalonian TV-showman Andreu Buenafuente (reprising his role in Torrente 1) and also some humorists (Manuel Barragan). A great and funny movie. 9 out of 10.

Featuring politically incorrect private detective Torrente (Santiago Segura) , he is a lazy, rude , despicable drunkard , caring only about protecting and serving himself . Despite that, he still manages to get the job done . Torrente follows the exploits of Jose Luis Torrente, a Bad Santa of the police force . This time he is moved to Marbella, where , after being wiped out of the money he had gained , has returned to private investigation . As usual , being helped by Cuco (Gabino Diego) , both of whom attempt to detain the local Mafia . Meanwhile , Torrente falls in love for a beautiful singer (Ines Sastre) but is utterly rejected . In one of his cases he discovers the illegalities and irregularities of a powerful magnate (Jose Luis Moreno) and gets involved in the middle of a nasty's missile plot to destroy the city and his own uncle's blackmail operation .

This is 2º installment in Torrente series . These films are made to entertain , and this movie , especially for a good time and a nice entertainment . "Torrente 2" is a passable and unapologetic dark comedy with great special effects , it has several funny and hilarious scenes and quite successful action scenes with persecution , car chases and many other things . The picture contains thrills , nosy action , tongue-in-cheek , profanities , grotesque situations and above all , humor . Torrente 2 is written, directed, produced and stars Segura, whose production house Amiguetes Entertainment produced the film , UIP holds Spanish distribution rights . The screenplay is absurd as well as crazy , just what makes laugh a lot , that the character "Torrente" very slutty , clumsy , sexist , extreme-right-wing , on a real person is despicable , being not adequate , but this is a film that satirizes all this and that just means it's a pathetic character , though he also has his charms . Torrente 2 grossed more than €22 million in 2001 and the first Torrente, which set box office records in its day, took $707,000 . The film contains many cameos of famous people, familiar faces such as Tony Leblanc , Juanito Navarro , Joe Luis Lopez Vazquez , Paloma Cela , Santi Millan , Jose Mota , Pablo Carbonel ,among others . This film will not disappoint Santiago Segura fans.

The first outing was ¨Torrente El Brazo Tonto De La Ley¨ in which he fights against the oriental mafia in Madrid , being starred by Javier Cámara , Neus Asensi , Chus Lampreave , Tony Leblanc , Antonio De La Torre ; ¨Torrente 3 El Protector¨ in which the horrendous Spanish detective becomes a bodyguard , being performed by José Mota , Javier Gutiérrez , Carlos Latre , Yvonne Sciò , Eduardo García , Fabio Testi ; ¨Torrente 4 Lethal crisis¨ with Carlos Areces , Kiko Rivera , Javier Gutiérrez , Fernando Esteso and ¨Torrente V: Misión Eurovegas¨ with Alec Baldwin , Anna Simon ,Neus Asensi , Pablo Motos , Chus Lampreave ,Andrés Pajares . The movies were written by, directed by and starred popular Spanish comedian-director Santiago Segura and is getting the remake treatment from New Line Cinema ; all of them were produced by Andres Vicente Gomez, who exec produced the Academy Award-winning Belle Epoque

Torrente is a crude, ladies man type man of the law. I think this version was even more fun because he's in the playground of Spain, Marbella. I think if you liked the first one, you will enjoy this version even more. I've even seen the third version, and this is my favorite. If you get the Spanish sense of humor, you will enjoy this film. I would say it's definitely for machos, and the wives and the girlfriends have to ignore lots of scenes in the Torrente series. But just keep a good sense of humor about it all. It's for guys who like sexy women (quite a bit of nudity in all of the Torrente films) and very Spanish domestic sense of humor. If you've ever lived in Spain or have a Spanish husband like I do, you will understand what I mean. For example, he loves "El Fary", Real Madrid, etc. The language is very graphic as well, and it is better if you understand Castellano. It is quite hilarious if certain things don't bother you.

After I saw Torrente 2 in Spanish I didn't know what to say... I've never seen any comparable kind of humor in a movie before! But I realized that Mr. Segura tried to gather some typical "inpolite" attitudes of Spanish society concentrating them in the character of Torrente. So this movie can be seen as a very exaggerated reflection of the low-class-society in Spain (e.g. have a look at the low register language Torrente employs!). But just that makes the flick so funny in a (in Germany) never seen form before.

The German sync.-version is a catastrophe! The expressions Torrente uses are too hard in German and too unusual. That makes the character "Torrente" some kind of confusing. Anyway I recommend this movie, especially when you dominate the Spanish language!

Never seen the first Torrente, but if it's as good as this one, I'm there. Santiago Segura is excellent as the overweight, rude, crude and downright nasty detective caught in some elaborate plot in Marbella which doesn't really matter since the movie is a collection of gross gags and outrageous situations... Torrente is one funny man and he's ably supported by a cast of weirdos, including his slow-witted assistant Cuco, a madman obsessed with his pet monkey, a crime boss with a panty fetish, an overweight kid in a wheelchair dreaming of being a detective, and a lot more. One of the funniest films I have ever seen, proving why Segura is a cult icon in Spain. **** out of 4.