Snabba cash II (2012) Reviews

• Compelling follow-up

  Leofwine_draca2015-12-17

  A compelling follow-up to the first film. This takes place three years after the events of EASY MONEY and follows the fortunes (or rather misfortunes) of a group of disparate and broken characters, each of them possessing a dangerous scheme to make some 'easy money'. Director Daniel Espinosa didn't return for this sequel, but his replacement Babak Najafi does a fine job in recreating the style of the original so that EASY MONEY II feels almost exactly the same as the first in terms of look and feel. The plotting is engaging and the way the various sub-plots weave together is deftly done. There's definitely a tragic and downbeat tone to the story - some might say that it's merely realistic - a 'crime doesn't pay' kind of vibe that runs throughout. The performances are exemplary, with Joel Kinnaman and Dragomir Mrsic particularly shining here and making for a strong double act. There's not as much character depth as in the first film, but on the plus side the focus is on crime throughout without any of the romantic padding or the like.

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• Compelling and exciting and so much better than what Hollywood does....

  stuart-127772018-05-11

  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.

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• A not so well-written movie, still worth watching.

  sanwik2012-08-22

  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.

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• Slightly worse than the first part, but no flop

  BeneCumb2013-01-26

  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.

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• Bad, despite a quite exciting start

  pivic2012-12-30

  Yes, this was actually better than the first part of this trilogy; this film doesn't show a lot of sappy scenes where all trauma lies explained - all childhood related - and the start of the film, where three parallel stories unfurl, is quite exciting. Still, it all dribbles down to one fatal flaw that people like Shakespeare, Akira Kurosawa and John Ford realised: if you use simple stereotypes and decide to tread the path that says "all bad guys must go down", you must have a twist on it. Here, there is none, and the film rots from the half to the end, where script, tempo, dialogue, and everything else suffers but lens glares are prioritised. Oh, well.

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