User reviews

Easy Money (or Snabba Cash to give it its original Swedish title) was originally released in Sweden in 2010, a full three years before it reached the UK, by which time the sequel (snappily entitled Snabba Cash II) had already been out for a year in Scandinavia. Perhaps that at least ensures we won't need to wait too long to find out what happens to the surviving characters.

With three strands that entwine into a single story, Easy Money is a violent, at times bloody, peek under the tarpaulin that covers the Serbian mafia and its nefarious dealings with drugs and murder. JW (Joel Kinnaman) is a clean-cut law student with money issues until the opportunity to run drugs ends the former and resolves the latter. With a girlfriend, Sophie (Lisa Henni), from the right side of town and employers from the wrong side, his life becomes complicated and very tense. Caught between Jorge (Mateas Varela), a fugitive on the run from the cops and the Serbian mafia, and Mrado (Dragomir Mrsic) a mafia hard man, JW winds up in some very deep do-do indeed…

Easy Money carves up the screen in a similar vein to this year's Dead Man Down but lacks the panache. Where as Colin Farrell's film had a certain smoothness to the violence, this is gritty and unfinished. It feels a little rushed at times but that's part of the attraction. You really don't want to mess with any of these characters. Ever.

It's very easy to like JW, even though everything screams that he's a fool who is willingly corrupting himself. It doesn't take a genius to work out there'll be serious consequences come the end of the film, but for whom? Kinnaman, who boosted his international profile with The Killing, is on excellent form here. Think Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Match Point only better. Much, much better.

The characters are rounded well enough for us to step back from them but not so much that they appear sculpted film characters rather than raw, unpleasant lowlifes who'll blow you away if it's ever a threat to their survival.

Easy Money is always compelling and the two-hour running time whizzes by in an instant. Alas, by sheer dint of it being in foreign language, it is unlikely to garner much of an audience in the UK and USA; I was the sole occupant of the cinema last night and, whilst it was a joy for me, it doesn't bode well for the chances of the sequel hitting Bristol.

For the philistines who are unable to watch and read the screen simultaneously, Easy Money is good enough to have been awarded an unnecessary Hollywood remake staring Zac Effron. I have nothing against Effron, on the contrary, he impressed me in The Paperboy last year, it's just that Hollywood does have a tendency to take excellent foreign language films and mutilate them. Disagree? Compare and contrast Let The Right One In with Let Me In, or The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its remake, or the Hollywood adaptation of TV's The Killing, or…

When will Hollywood learn? Stop remaking the great films and TV series and take a look at those that should have been good but bombed. I'm not judging the remake of Easy Money before the cameras even start rolling but, take it from me, it's unlikely to improve on the original. It's certainly no date movie, but a gritty thriller that will happily consume any Friday night.

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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.

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!

¨Easy cash¨is an absorbing crime tale with electricity pumping through its veins , being based on the novel James Ellroy Calls. An epic European thriller to rival Stieg Larsson .The Swedish import (with the cooler name Snabba Cash) arrives in North America after filling box office coffers in its Norwegian homeland. The film opens with Jorge (Matias Varela) staging a daring prison break (despite only having a year left on his sentence), and subsequently falling right back into the world of drugs and violence that clearly got him locked up in the first place. But a move like that never comes without consequences, as we meet Mrado (Dragomir Mrsic) who has suddenly found . When JW (Joel Kinnaman) becomes a drug runner in order to maintain his double life, his fate becomes tied to two other men: Jorge, a fugitive on the run from both the Serbian mafia and the police, and mafia enforcer Mrado, who is on the hunt for Jorge . JW has more than his next fare in mind as he wants to escape his lower middle class past and starving student present. Opportunity comes knocking when a friend offer him a chance to deal with dark businesses . A multi-cultural pursuit of happiness thanks to cocaine begins with Jonah "Jw" Westlund . Living a double life, J.W. gets in over his head, falling for an heiress (Lisa Henni) and becoming more and more embroiled in criminal activity.

it's incredibly stylish action/drama movie , a rattling good thriller with potentially global appeal . It is entirely criminal world , beautifully rendered and wildly thrilling . This is a sharp-eyed Swedish crime drama , "Snabba Cash," retitled "Easy Money" for North American audiences by The Weinstein Company who has picked it up for U.S. release, one has to to first note its trajectory . Already a hit in Sweden where it was released at the beginning of 2010, the picture's taut, intense and propulsive momentum caught the attention of audiences . This dazzler of a movie is right in his wheelhouse, given that it's about urban criminals with moral codes and strong ethnic identities, plus there's plenty of violence . Good performance by Joel Kinnaman as a finance student by day and drug runner by night to help afford the expensive lifestyle of his wealthy circle of friends . Kinnaman, who also stars in AMC's "The Killing," and will star in the remake of "RoboCop" . The motion picture presented by Martin Scorsese was well realized by director Daniel Espinosa , though being slowly paced and sometimes a little bit boring . Only a few Swedish films cross the pond and get a stateside release , on of them is ¨Easy cash¨ getting success around the world . As Swedish hit as well as hit U.S. theaters , considering that a little feat that the crime drama pulled at the Swedish box office which caught the eye of more than a few Hollywood producers. Sweden has already celebrated the first installment, giving the film three Guldbagges (the country's equivalent of an Oscar), including a win for Kinnaman for Best Actor, and moved on to the second, "Snabba Cash II," with the same artistic and technician .Director Daniel Espinosa replaces a bit of bada-bing with class warfare, thanks to the international wise guy film . Espinosa earned critical acclaim and subsequently hired by Hollywood , where has directed the successful ¨Safe house¨ with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds .

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.

Fortunately, thriller is not dead. Hollywood thriller is a desiccated corpse. It somehow keeps plodding stealing good ideas from around a world. This movie is awaiting a remake in Hollywood. Can't wait to see that disaster. What makes this Swedish thriller fresh and original is the hefty dose of reality and interest in it's characters. They are not just a bunch of crooks and psychopaths, they are human too. Young Swede with expensive tastes and little money, Chilean criminal with dreams and the Serbian enforcer with an 8-year daughter to care for. We see the glimpse of what they are made of. Nothing overly heavy and preachy, but just enough to fell real and plausible. And that is what Hollywood doesn't do. The audience they aim for, pimply, computer game addicted, 14 year olds just don't have the patience for anything else apart from explosions and non-stop action. So, thankfully comes this brilliant flick with 2 sequels to follow.

Some Latin guy escapes a jail out in the country and makes it to his sister's apartment in the city no problem. In the meantime, JW is some working class kid studying business. He lives in the dorms and works writing term papers for his rich friends and driving a cab at nights. But he aspires to much higher circles, he parties with his rich classmates pretending to be something he's not while they are in an entirely different league. His boss at the cab company is some Arab involved in all sorts of shady affairs and JW knows it. In fact, he wants to move up and do some more lucrative work. So the Arab offers him an opportunity. He wants JW to meet up with the Latin guy because he's very important to him. As JW finds him, some bad guy is after the Latin guy, it's a Serbian mafia enforcer. JW follows them out to the woods where the Latin guy gets a good beating. JW manages to save him from the situation and the boss wants him know to take him into the dorms and take care of him. They end up becoming friends of sorts.

The Serbian now is ordered by social services to take care of his daughter. Just at the time when his boss decides to declare war on the Arab mobsters over the cocaine trade in town. JW meets a lovely girl at one of the parties and gets involved with her but of course the relationship is based on lies.

The Latin guy is key to the Arabs' expansion of the cocaine business. His cousin can provide them with large quantities of drugs. JW proposes to the boss that they launder the money through a bank. As coincidence would have it one of his rich friend's father owns a bank that is in serious financial trouble. JW suggests the boss buy a stake in the bank that way they could forge the documents to not alert authorities of the dirty money. He would get a good cut from the transactions. Even the bank guy reluctantly agrees knowing full well where the money is coming from. JW's business smarts impress all the bad guys.

Now JW's cab-driving colleague, another Arab, decides to sell them out to the Serbians. When the boss finds out he gives the guy a good beating in front of JW who for some reason is shaken to the core by this. Apparently he's under the impression that the drug business is a peaceful matter. Then suddenly the Serbian appears and tells him that the business is full of treachery and deception and that he shouldn't expect to make a whole lot of money. Instead he will offer him several million to tell him the location of this upcoming big drug shipment. JW agrees. But someone else also has a change of heart as well. When the drug shipment arrives several characters converge on the scene and things don't turn out as planned for anyone. The movie ends hinting at a sequel and it looks like JW will have another change of heart.

Easy Money wants to be some realistic gritty crime saga, but it's not. It's some emotional drama that relies on a bunch of unlikely coincidences piling up on one another and plenty of unlikely scenarios. JW is so naive even though he works as night cab driver...for a mob boss. Uber/Lyft drivers have more street smarts than this guy. And why a working class tween would be so abhorred by the slightest sign of violence is not clear either. The introduction of the little girl into the Serb's life is also ridiculous. He drags her around everywhere as if people in these immigrant communities don't have friends/relatives to help out.

Direction is off most of the time and so is the music which tends to set the opposite mood of what the script requires. As all Scandinavian productions this is filmed mostly in shades of gray. We get it, it's cold there, but that doesn't mean colors have vanished.

Kinnaman is a likable and charismatic guy. Some of the details the director does get right as when JW who usually is insecure and out of his element comes to his own when he is explaining financial stuff. The relationship with the girl is initially well handled but why he can't resort to her in his time of crisis makes no sense.

Still, Easy Money is a wasted opportunity.

What I really liked about this movie is that no matter where the characters were from, they had actors from that country playing them. This is how it should be done for all films. Many times in Hollywood movies, we see an English-speaking actor playing a foreign character and you can hear an accent. Hollywood thinks they can get away with it because the Americans won't notice. This may be true but this alone is worth 1 point out of 10. If I am watching some Serbians talking among themselves, I want it to be as real as possible. Only a Serb knows how to talk like a Serb and only a German knows how to talk like a German. And the same goes vice- versa, only an American should play an American. And that's what this movie has. It has actors that play characters from their homeland.

This film teaches you how quickly life can turn the other cheek, especially in the crime world. The innocence portrayed by our lead character JW, played by Joel Kinnaman takes you right into this. He gets himself involved in a world where he naturally doesn't belong by making an important decision at the beginning of the film. The movie takes you through all of his emotions as he learns more and more about this new world.

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Director, Daniel Espinosa, attempts to recreate the success of Jens Lapidus' novel, Snabba Cash (Easy Money). Maria Karisson was challenged with writing the screenplay, while Lapidus supplied insight for the manuscript. The film was originally released in 2010 and has now finally made its way to the states after several American film companies hashed it out for the rights. Expect sequels in the near future.

Johan "JW" Westland (Joel Kinnaman) is a student at the Stockholm School of Economics, who also secretly moonlights as a cabbie for Abdulkarim (Mahmut Suvakci), to make extra cash. When JW isn't driving a cab or studying he's, partying with the rich and powerful and goes out of his way to appear as one of them with his style of dress and charismatic demeanor. When Abdulkarim approaches JW with an opportunity to make some fast cash, he can't resist.

JW is tasked with delivering Jorge Salinas (Matias Padin Varela), who recently escaped prison, to Abdulkarim. Upon arriving at their rendezvous point, JW discovers that Jorge is being followed by Mrado Slovovic (Dragonir Mrsic) and must think fast if he is to save Jorge, whom he never met, from an uncertain death and collect his bankroll. He succeeds, impressing both Jorge and Abdulkarim, and is given the opportunity to work with them both in the drug trade they're attempting to get off the ground. Soon he is faced with the difficulty of managing two lives, one of which includes new girlfriend, Sophie (Lisa Henni).

JW is clearly the entity Easy Money revolves around in this action film, though,filmmakers Espinosa and Karisson attempt to reveal secondary story-lines with Jorge and Mrado–a feat which may have been less cumbersome in the novel. The film rotates between the three characters, but you can't help but feel cheated due to the incompleteness of their backstories. They do succeed in humanizing the three to some degree. Hence, Mrado is the hardened killer who finds himself caring for his young daughter unexpectedly and allowing his paternal instincts to take over. Likewise, Jorge vows to care for his family once the big drug deal is completed.

Espinosa directs a suspenseful film that doesn't solely depend on action sequences to entertain. Kinnaman gives a charming performance as JW. Varela and Mrsic both give noteworthy performances. By far, JW is the most complex of the characters. At first glance, it seems he is motivated by money, but it becomes clear that a sense of belonging is also a factor. His growing friendship with Jorge begins to impact his decisions and his relationship with Sophie. In fact, the bond of friendship plays a big part in the films questionable ending. However, it again appears the character development between the two lacked the necessary foundation as the outcome attempts to support. JW does evolve throughout this tale, but for the better or for the worse is left up to the viewer. Minus a few hiccups, Easy Money is engrossing and worthy of a look.

Snabba Cash – Easy money – CATCH IT (B+) Swedish Snabba Cash is a perfect example of thrilling drama. From outer side the movie may looks like an action bonanza but from inner side its emotionally connected thriller which takes us into the lives of criminals or just I say criminal minded. Based upon the bestselling book, the movie is refreshing and amalgamation of emotional drama and thrilling violence is just perfect. On one side it shows how far a man can go to be rich so he can be part of the wealthy society of Stockholm and on the other side how far a man can go to protect his child from his criminal life. Joel Kinnaman has emerged as superstar, he literally owns the movie. Stylish, chic and poor/rich seriously this man does everything greatly. Watching this after The Killing and cameo in Safe House makes me admire his potential and there is no doubt his future is bright. Lisa Henni is gorgeous. Dragomir Mrsic is great as protective father and the criminal. All the other supporting cast is fantastic. Overall, Snabba Cash is really entertaining thriller and now I cannot wait to see Snabba Cash2.

What a complex story this one is. There are no less than four different factions at work in this Swedish film - Swedes, Spaniards, Arabs, and Serbs. Together, they make for a thriller glimpse into Sweden's dark drug underbelly, one which will NEVER be highlighted by Rick Steves' Europe. As with any drug film, there are copious amounts of white stuff as well as sex, music and violence. Snabba Cash is a well-written and planned out thriller. Recommended.

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.

So the Swedish continue with the dark themes here. It's been a golden period for Swedish creative media following the success of TV series and books all seeming to concentrate on the dark side of life. This ain't no difference as our anti-hero is a young naive man over his head in the world of drugs and gangs. There's only one obvious solution to his problems and we are voyeurs watching this ride.

We have a mostly low budget made movie (with admittedly annoying shaky camera work) which sees a wide range of local actors impressing showing the dark side of their life across the ethnic groups in Sweden.

The story isn't anything complicated and it's mostly a ride for the viewer. Quite a cynical outlook across classes in Sweden, but you will easily relate some of this to your home countries.

I liked it. It's nothing special necessarily but very much worth a watch, and you'll definitely want to watch more with two sequels to date having been made.

Excellent reviews, strong box-office in Sweden, and starring Joel Kinnaman (superb in The Killing), I was stunned at how uninteresting this film turned out for me. This is not to take away anything from the uniformly excellent cast. My favorite Swedish- American Jew, lol, is absolutely fine as the ambitious protagonist, displaying the star power he possesses. But oh the story, not so good. This was hardly original, although the genre rarely delivers something completely different. But I was bored, confused and eventually disinterested in what might happen next. Congrats to everyone involved for their success, but, alas, the film failed to reach me.

The first time I saw this film I had just finished the book. Simply loved the book and I was really looking forward to the movie adaptation. At first I found myself disappointed. The problem according to me was how they had handled the material. The movie just felt like a too trimmed down and simplified adaptation. I understand that you can't bring the entire book to the big screen, but this felt rushed and simple. Character that felt vastly different to their counterparts in the book. It took quite some time before I saw the film again. I decided to try being more objective, not keep irritating myself over the changes. Take it for what it is and not what it could and maybe should have been. I´ve seen it several times since often with long breaks between, meaning years. It seems each time I see it I like it more. Now I think it´s one of the best Swedish thrillers, at least of the ones I have seen. A really gripping movie about criminal underworld, themes of social status, gripping characters and thrilling events. This is a brutal film not just in the action but also the plot. It feels very realistic even if I don´t really know anything about the stuff. The author of the book has personal experience of the world he writes about. The acting is very good. Excellent casting choices. Not only in their performances but they really feel believable in this world. Joel Kinnaman is pretty much as I imagined JW and Matias Varela it totally believable. The actor which makes the best performance is Dragomir Mrsic, his performance is great and his is the most gripping character. The action is among the best in a Swedish movie. Visually great with suspense at the highest. Brutal and tense without overdoing it. Not wanting to bad mouth Swedish movies but the production is really on top. I think that even if you are not familiar with the book you will have little problem in following the plot. The pace is fast but not too much. It still gives time to give us understanding of the characters. Which is totally necessary as the characters are just as interesting as the events they are in, maybe even more so.

Snabba Cash is a brutal, realistic, tense and gripping. They have done a movie that I think does the book justice but also works very well as a movie on its own.

Illegal trade is profitable because there's less competition: prohibition puts most people off, and restricts supply. But without the law to protect you, the competition there is tends to be bloody and violent (which itself serves to further reduce supply). The perfect white collar crime might never be quite as clean as it seems: if someone else wants a piece of your action, things are going to get messy. Daniel Espinosa's film 'Easy Money' is a serviceable thriller, well-done in itself but not especially original. A social climbing business student sees an opportunity to offer his services to a drug smuggling gang; but soon finds that being a money launderer is not quite as simple as he'd hoped. Some details of the plot make less than perfect sense: "take over a private bank and gain access to equity worth 30 times what you pay for it" is a plan that surely needs more explanation. What's good about the drama is that it shows the gang war from multiple sides: the characters may be rotten, but they're still all human, and each with their own mixed motives for the bad things they do. There's nothing here you won't have seen before, but the execution is better than average.

Much acclaimed this flick to be honest it's a trilogy and by seeing the first one you easily want to pick up the second one. Was it all that good as people and critics said and that even Hollywood had to remake it with Zac Afron. It's not that bad, it's not all about action, you will go deep into the characters and will start to know that the world of the mob is full of ego's going for themselves.

Maybe some will turn their face away from this flick because it isn't an usual gangster flick. It's not all about shooting and killing and robbing. Here you will follow JW (Joel Kinnaman) who moves into the underground without really knowing it. But slowly he will learn the loyalty and tricks how to serve.

You will love or hate this flick because it moves slowly forward and sucks you into the world of drugs and money. It's up to you to follow that world.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5