EASY MONEY II: HARD TO KILL/ SNABBA CASH II

Sweden, 2012, 99 minutes, Colour.
Joel Kinnaman, Matias Varela, Dragomir Mrsic, Fares Fares, Madeleine Martin, Dejan Cukic, Joel Spira, Lisa Henni.
Directed by Babak Najafi.

Easy Money II is not a stand-alone film. It depends for its characters and situations on the original film from 2010.

Once again, Joel Kinnaman plays the young JW, a student from a poor family, infiltrating himself into gangs in Sweden, presuming on his charm but being put in his place by his upper-class associates. He has driven taxis, given shelter to a criminal, Jorge IMatias Varela) who has a prominent role in this film. He had also tangled, violently, with a member of the Serbian game,Mrado (Dragomir Mrsic), also a prominent character in this film.

The opening finds JW still in prison but about to be released on parole. He has made friends with Mrado who is now confined to a wheelchair because of gunshot wounds. During his time in prison, JW has been working on software which he proposes to sell, along with his upper crust friend, Nicolas/Nippe, but when he goes to the interview with the company, he finds that Nippe has gone the previous day and sold the material as his own. Part of the drama is JW going to a restaurant and confronting Nippe.

Also in the picture is his girlfriend from the first film, Sophie.

Jorge appears more prominently in this film, making contact with his sister who has given birth to a child, with her husband who is antagonistic. He contacts his mother who dies. He gets a job as a chef and encounters a prostitute who escapes into the kitchen after being interned by the Serbian boss. They fall in love, go through various difficulties, but are attacked by gunmen and shot. However, both survive.

The Serbian gang is also prominent, the boss, Radovan, as well as the thug who kept Nadia as a sex slave. This also leads to interventions by Jorge and shootouts and executions.

Mrado escapes from prison, wants to see his daughter, but dies.
Further complication is with the character, Mahmoud, who has stolen an amount of money from the Serbs but is hired by Radovan, the boss, to repay his debt by tracking down Jorge – but it leads him to a confrontation with JW with whom he formerly worked in the first film. And his death
.
The action moves quite rapidly, at times perhaps too rapidly and straining credulity, especially with the shootouts, the woundings and survivals.

While Joel Kinnaman is still billed as the star, his appearances in this film, as in the third film, are very limited. For more information and discussion, it is necessary to check with the first film.