Easy Money II: Hard to Kill

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.

Having watched a lot of Scandinavian drama I was impressed by this under rated piece of gritty film making. I do not agree with some other reviews here that this second part is underwhelming, Although it is set in the world of crime I found myself becoming attached to certain characters and being deeply moved at times by the plot lines and accompanying music. Well worth watching.

'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.

This little crime genre film rolls along pretty nicely, because it mixes different types of criminals (the weak minded or the desperate) and underlines the strange role that Sweden plays for immigrants.

The one thing I always remember about Sweden is that all immigrants hate the Swedes. This story mixes in Arabs, Serbs and even a Mexican. So the crime communities just get on with the job - and indeed Sweden itself is just a back drop here.

I didn't see the first film, but the different characters obviously knew each other, but this is only relevant later on. All of them meet some type of nexus because of something going wrong, and have to resort to more crime. Gritty without being unpalatable, we see that crime rarely pays and there is, of course, no easy money.

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.