A few years back director Michel Hazanavicius resurrected the forgotten French spy movie franchise with the help of star Jean Dujardin, the result being a film that played like far less of a spoof or parody than it did as a lost relic from a lost time. The production values were so unerringly matched to films of the era it depicted that it could easily have been produced thirty years earlier than it was, the comedy absolutely soaring thanks to a refusal to go for the easy joke and insisting instead on maintaining a certain absurd consistency to the character. The attention to detail remains in this new hit sequel – the deliberate overuse of split screen effects is both stylish and hysterical – though the creative team has abandoned many of the subtleties of the first film for a more obvious approach to the humor, resulting in a film that is less impressive than the first but still a very effective little comedy.

In this installment Bonisseur must travel to South America, where he is quickly joined in his pursuit by agents of the Israeli Mossad. The Israeli agents have no interest in the microfilm that is Bonisseur's goal, they want to capture the man behind it so that he can be forced to stand trial for war crimes. The partnership would appear to be perfect on the surface – Israel takes the man, France the goods – but for two niggling facts: First, the Israeli colonel is Jewish, resulting in a series of hugely stereotyped and racist comments and bumbling explanations from Bonisseur about why he is not, in fact, a racist. Second is the equally troubling fact that said Israeli colonel is a woman. A beautiful woman mistaken by Bonisseur for is secretary whom – even after that particular mix up is clarified – he still expects to run his errands and fetch his meals.

The expectation of these new OSS films may have been that they would be parodies of the spy motifs of the 60s and 70s – particularly of the Bond films – and while there are nods and winks in that direction from time to time – how could there not be? – the real core of the comedy lies in Bonisseur's blissful ignorance of changing society. He is Ward Cleaver given a gun and dropped into the free love era of women's lib, equal rights and desegregation. He is not only completely uncomprehending of the issues of the time, he is completely unaware that there even are issues at all. When the comedy of the OSS films work best it is precisely this clash of Bonisseur's legitimate well meaning – he truly believes that he is being the good guy and wants nothing more than to be the dashing hero loved and respected by all – and the wildly unacceptable belief system that he has built his world around that makes it sing. That very much remains the core of Rio Ne Reponds Plus but this film lacks much of the subtlety of the first picture, almost as if the producers lost faith in the ability of their audience to put the point together themselves and felt the need to make it just a little bit more obvious. It is still effective and very, very funny – how can you not laugh at a film that features Nazi masked wrestlers and a hero that insists on gutting and roasting a crocodile in the middle of a jungle filled with fruit ripe for the picking because a man needs to have vitamins? – but it seems like a definite, albeit slight, step back from the first installment.

Time will tell if Rio Ne Reponds Plus will be the end of the OSS franchise - I certainly hope not as there's plenty of fertile ground left to cover – but whether producers order up another sequel or not these two film should secure director Hazanavicius and star Dujardin's position as a comic and artistic force to be reckoned with. Whether it be more OSS or some other project, let their next project together come soon.