Easy Money II: Hard to Kill

'Easy Money' was a gripping, albeit conventional, story of an ordinary man dragged into a life of crime. This sequel, while also quite watchable, seems to have less purpose: we're reintroduced to the various characters we met in the first film, and watch their continuing, violent and disastrous efforts to make it rich by dealing in drugs. It's broadly believable if a little exaggerated in tempo: drug gangs wouldn't actually survive if their individual members generally perished at quite this rate, but unlike the first film, there's never any possibility of redemption or escape. The sentimental ending rings a little false given the disregard for human life shown by all participants.

It is not a crime drama that I recommend to the whole family on a sunday - or any day of the week - evening. Nothing hollywoodian in this crime film, it presents Eastern Europe DNA in the story, the plot, the violence is everywhere, every dialogue, shot. I watch it every five or six years and enjoy even more and more each time. The second movie of the trilogy is my favorite, though not necessarily the best of the three. It's a bit hard to find a lead character among the others, and don't expect to find any good guy fighting against villains scheme. So, if you crave for brutal and gritty crime films, this one from Europe is definitely for you.

Well, the first half hour was rather dull, but then the events started to roll and scenes with with chases and betrayals began. This time, the focus is on other characters, but their reasons and acts were logically motivated (apart from the depiction of the Swedish police who were always long time and several steps behind). The characters are more trivial than in the 1st part, and bringing moments with remorse into the lives of hardened criminals was not very convincing; I liked most Fares Fares as Mahmoud.

The film is okay and if you yourself are okay with seeing a film made in Sweden with only a few Swedes in it, and you avoid of pondering why foreign criminals can act freely without having proper sentences and later being expelled, then you are a right viewer.

This was one of the movies I was looking forward to see this year. (That said, I didn't have high expectations, I was only looking forward to see it)

Mostly I was curious of how they would build things up after a so well-written and trustworthy predecessor. I was a bit disappointed as the movie turned out to be like most movies in the genre. The movie is worth watching, but compared to Snabba Cash /Easy money it's not a worthy followup.

Easy Money was based on a book by a writer who has got direct contact with people involved in this kind of criminal activities, which made it trustworthy, down to earth but still exciting in a Swedish environment.

Easy Money 2 however, is loosely based on the trilogy of these books, which makes the movie lack of facts, reliability and makes it "just another movie" in the genre.

The actors do play their part in this movie, the screenplay is however not that good, which makes the overall experience worse.

Give it a shot, and see for yourself, but try to see it as just a movie that have the same characters as another movie, don't watch it if you're looking for a good sequel.

You know, to be fair, there are many reasons why gangstas get caught and end up in prison, the chief reasons being betrayed and stupidity. Many times, you'll read in the papers how drug traffickers get caught because they're speeding, swerving in and out of traffic, driving with no plates, driving with their lights off at night, blasting their music so loudly the bass shatters nearby windows, or circling around a block continuously like vultures waiting for an animal to die. The prisons are fill of their moronic decisions. Snabba Cash II shines a light on those stupid mistakes drug dealers make. They may as well walk around with a red flag sticking out of their skulls while shooting themselves in the foot.