Easy Money: Le dernier souffle

What I will always remind from this film is the long take heist sequence and some scenes related to the preparation of the heist, the drills in the empty abandoned warehouse. Like a military operation. The heist, that's only what I liked, I loved, in this movie. That's the third or fourth time I see it and only for this reason. I forget the rest, as the two other EASY MONEY films. Last week, I reviewed THE QUIET ONES, proposing a very similar heist, in a security complex facility for armored trucks. This very movie here is rather a bit complex, too much for me. But it's not a crap, not at all. I just give my opinion and also my feeling.

And so concludes a Scandinavian crime thriller along the lines of other triptychs like Department Q and Pusher. I like these films because, in spite of their faults, they are still intriguing. Snabba Cash is no exception. I thought the handsome Swedish guy was going to be the main character but it turned out to be the Serb's daughter and the Spaniard. Who knew? Recommended? Sure, why not. Could've been worse.

Outwith of the big budget heavily directed cinematic movies that clog up the cinema schedules, you'll find a good line of well produced and engaging films. TV box sets are all the rage, but there are still plenty of good films. The Easy Money trilogy is one of them.

I found this set of films by chance on BBC 4, and gave it a go. Each film gave me a good taste for more. What we have is a film centring round the underbelly of Swedish society covering drugs, crime, pimping, immigrants and wealth.

It's guns, it's gangsters and it's lowlife. Yet, it's more than that. It's a multi-threaded set of thrillers that leads us on a difficult and uncomfortable journey as we see the leads tip-toe around their peers, before trying to crush them. It's dark, it's grim and frightening, and very cynical in its outlook on humanity. Yet it's really honest and depressingly so, but that look feels like we are seeing a more honest view of the underworld. It's a fresh outlook that doesn't hide the truth.

The film is directed and shot in a very frugal manner, and this works. There is no glamour and it's all quite base. That's the hook to this fine trilogy.

I really wish there was more, but maybe halting at three films was the correct end for this. I was engrossed in following the characters in this set of films. It's one that I'll revisit, and one that I'd recommend most others to give a try to also.

No pun intended - the conclusion of the Easy Money (aka Snabba Cash) trilogy. Although there is a tv show with that name that may be worth my and everybody elses time of course. But let's dig in at the movie at hand here. I assume you have seen the previous two movies. That is a given - there won't be too much looking back in the movie itself either. So if you do not know your characters ... you may not have the full experience here.

That being said, certain characters take a back seat - at least on the surface. Because while some are gone (one major character from the first two movies died in the second movie), we get introduced to new people ... but also see others in new light. While I wasn't sure what could be done and said after the first movie ... the triolgy showed me that even if not planned (I doubted it in my review of the first movie from 10 years ago), we get quite a few new conclusions ... you may not agree with all of them ... maybe some twists may feel a bit stretched ... especially towards the end ... but good or bad ... I think we finally reached the end ... and overall the good conquers the bad (no pun intended) ...

The last instalment of the EASY MONEY trilogy is the least of the three thanks to its disjointed nature, but it's still unmissable viewing for anybody who's seen the other two. EASY MONEY III: LIFE DELUXE continues the trend from the first two films of containing beautifully shot scenes of characters struggling with the trials and tribulations of their criminal lives.

Once again there's a wonderfully tense and wonderfully shot heist scene to enjoy, along with some involvement with a crime family that brings to mind the glory days of the gangster film, THE GODFATHER et al. Matias Varela gets the lion's share of the screen time as the small-fry bad guy still trying to make it big, although Joel Kinnaman fans will be disappointed that he barely has a cameo in this one. Still, there are plenty of involving sub-plots in EASY MONEY III and most of them are hard-hitting and intense, although with the extra complexity comes extra confusion, making this the least satisfying of the trilogy.