Easy Money

This is a stylish, intelligent thriller with good camera-work and lots of visual style. I liked the way the movie shows international crime as a very ugly business, without rules and with lots of violence. The way a greedy young student is slowly drawn into a world that is clearly not his, is intriguing. Some elements make this film stand out above the usual Hollywood-flicks - for example the way one of the criminals treats his little daughter. This is a nice thriller that doesn't slow down, with lots of action scenes and twists. It could have done without the hardly believable love story, but I can imagine the director needed to compensate the violence with some softer scenes.

EASY MONEY is a highly effective slice of Scandi crime drama that blows the socks off the Hollywood competition. It's a film responsible for introducing new talent to the international scene in the form of lead Joel Kinnaman (who went on to be the new ROBOCOP) and director Daniel Espinosa (who went on to direct the Denzel Washington thriller SAFE HOUSE on the strength of this).

The story is a complex but watchable one that tells of various competing criminal factions seeking to control the local drug supply. The mix of amoral characters is what makes this film feel unique; the hero is anything but heroic, merely out to save his own skin, and thus has a kind of vibrant realism missing from all those goody two-shoes in Hollywood flicks. Plus, Dragomir Mrsic's Serbian hit-man is good enough to deserve a film all to himself, and really helps to add quality to the film.

Epinosa's direction is another strength as he forgoes the typical dark and dingy look of a Scandinavian crime flick and instead creates a bright, colourful and beautiful look for the film. I had the pleasure of seeing this in high definition and it really looks a treat. EASY MONEY isn't an action film or a thriller packed with suspense scenes, but the quality of the script and plotting mean you'll be glued to the screen as if it were. Bring on the sequel!

JW (Joel Kinnaman) is a poor economics student who is dabbing in questionable money making schemes while faking a double life with his rich acquaintances. He falls for the rich Sophie (Lisa Henni). Jorge (Matias Varela) has just escaped from jail. JW and Jorge is working for the Albanian drug lord Abdulkarim who is trying to put together a big shipment. Meanwhile Mrado (Dragomir Mrsic) is a Serbian enforcer. The Serbian are going to war with Abdulkarim but Mrado has a new responsibility in his daughter and he's planning a final score to get out of it all.

Mrado says that people start becoming greedy and scared. That's what I love about this story. Everybody is a bastard. Nobody is safe. JW thinks he's smarter than he actually is, and he never truly understands that he's expendable. I love how Jorge breaks it all down for JW, and the two men's complicated relationship. There are no angels here, just survivors.

A really good action thriller with interesting characters. I do NOT think that they are plain stereotypes without Drott. On the contrary. You feel for them and it's easy to get engaged in their lives and all they experience.

The movie manages to bring forth some very sensitive moments as well as very brutal scenes with realistic violence. I especially likes the lighting when it comes to the technical part of Snabba Cash. I also liked the shots of some of the dialogue which i found innovative without being over the top. They made it very interesting to watch.

I usually look the other when it comes to Swedish movies but I really enjoyed this one.

I say watch it.

Had big doubts when I came. Had less doubts when I left and they were of another kind. But, big surprise, Swedish film industry has produced a gangster thriller which is on international level, although not the highest.

The business school student here is too fascinated by suburban immigrant mobster life. And he wants the money involved, so he gets into the racket. He's a solitaire in that kind of life, which of course (what did you expect?) is told in a cliché way, but the people you meet aren't just monsters, running the evil machine or being part of it. They are somewhat believable and so is the gloomy mood in this environment.

What happens is rather foreseeable, but it's anyway a quite intelligent movie about crime and criminals. It could have been much much worse.