JW is serving hard time in prison and struggling to get back on an honest path. There are glimmers of hope in his life – some venture capitalists are interested in a new piece of trading software he's developed, and while behind bars he's made peace with an old enemy. This all proves to be an illusion. On leave from prison, and back in contact with his former gang, JW learns that once you've walked in the shoes of a criminal there just may be no going back.
Reviews
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.
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.
The first one was a small sensation. Can Swedes make crime movies, which won't be ridiculed and parodied the week after? Yes, they could.The same can be said about the sequel. The story is more unlikely this time and there are some more clichés, but the characters are anyway not square. They are hoodlums with complications and there's a well functioning story-telling with passable action scenes.Not that you believe posh Stockholm being like that and why should you believe it about the subs? But movies like this have their own agenda, for better and for worse. This is for better. Can be watched, if you don't have anything more exciting going on in your own life.