Torrente, le bras gauche de la loi

This was movie of the year in Spain in 1998 following Ulloas success with Airbag the year before. It's about a truly revolting cop in Madrid. He's a sexist,egotistical,dirty pig. There are some memorable scenes in the film and it's quite funny if you don't have any problems with political correctness. It's probably more fun to a Spanish audience who get the jokes about Atlético Madrid fans, "in" expressions and other national references. A Spanish viewer can also appreciate all the cameos. Some of Spain's most renowned actors appear in little parts and add an extra twist to it all. The pace of the movie is fast and there are no dull moments. Go and see it if you can but have a couple of beers before you go.

Just bought and seen the dvd (dirt cheap) though I never heard of it. Had the same experience with works like Almodovar (Todo Sobre Mi madre, Carne Tremular) and Amenabar (Abre Los Ojos). None of them were disappointing (understatement). First I thought It would be a movie like Bad Lieutenant , this time on too much sangria. From the right beginning really funny and a-moral. But hey, it turned out to be a true movie after all.

Spanish auteur Santiago Segura, who wrote, directed and stars in this film, creates a decent if overly dark comedy about corruption. Segura claims to be a member of the Madrid police force, but his outlandish behavior – he drinks before going on duty and forces his wheelchair-bound father to beg to increase his income – hardly demonstrates the qualities required of a representative of the law. When sleazy nymphomaniac Neus Asensi moves in next door, he befriends her cousin, extremely nerdy Javier Cámara. When Segura and his new sidekick accidentally discover a drug ring run through a Chinese restaurant, Cámara calls in his loser friends to help. As the cast gets significantly reduced in a flurry of bullets and tragedy, Segura concludes the film with a few plot twists and the unsettling suggestion that sometimes people are as bad as they seem. An inherently unfunny story gets injected with a dose of morbid wit through Segura's approach to the characters. His attitude toward humanity appears quite dark. Everyone in the film either takes advantage of others or finds himself exploited, and no one seems to wind up punished for their wrongdoings. True, a number of maniacal drug dealers get offed, but so do all of Cámara's awkward, endearing friends. Segura follows few conventions in his portrayal of the world of his deluded cop. Chus Lampreave, familiar from several of Pedro Almodóvar's films, has a nice role as Cámara's mother.

Torrente, a useless medium aged man, overweight, coward and ugly. He has a dream of being a police, and he actually pretends to be one. At times, it does reflect what the real policemen do. Always be there, at the end of any incident.

Rafi is his friend, a action movie freak who is living with his mum and cousin Amparito.

Torrente and Rafi will be patrolling Madrid and they get involve in real gun shooting, as they meet drug traffickers and other undesirable human beings.

Highly recommended to have nice laughing time. Nice watch and very funny, one of the best comedies in the Spanish movie industry :)

Beware this comedy isn't palatable to all taste, but after watched it firstly on cable TV and stayed disoriented for a while, such foolishness, anyhow it was so fresh and inventive, an anti-hero character, who has countless bad behaviors, drunkard, racist, disgusting, filthy, obscene, we can think the worst thing that he will be fits perfectly, however he hooked the audience in such shallow ground.

Torrente is fantastic and deliberately bad to catch us toward him, in fact the viewers in such environment don't mind anymore, it's just a black comedy, we realize that it is a farce, then who cares what's coming next, so Santiago Segura conceived a harmless, but appealing character, in fact amazed us entirely, even politically incorrect to nowadays pattern, great box office in Spain that spreading around the world!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2006 / How many: 2 / Source: Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.