I'm going to do this in English even though I'm Swedish.
So, the third film of the 'Snabba Cash' trilogy. Before I start, I just want to say that I haven't read any of the books, only talked to a few people who have and the way I understood it was that the films don't follow the books in any particular order.
It's pretty clear that the film is not focusing on 'JW', even though he was an important part in it story wise. But as for the film, I think Joel Kinnaman got maybe, 10 minutes of screening time? (Just a wild guess). I had absolutely no problem with this since 'Radovan' & 'Jorge' always interested me very much even in the previous movies. Boy did they step up their game - both character and performance-wise, especially 'Radovan'. Both of them completely steal the show and they do it very good. Swedish actors are very good when it comes to drama. Also worth mentioning, some solid performances by Malin Buska ('Natalie')and Martin Wällström ('Martin') who also had great chemistry.
I loved this film and in a way, I would like to say that it's the best one in the trilogy. But the first one is still hard to beat judging by the main performance(s) and Espinosas touch. It feels as if this movie had more ground to cover and I think Jens Jonsson did a great job at doing that even though I did feel that the film was jumping back and forth too much for its own good. I completely understand why that is since the first and the second movie didn't cover much ground at all if you compare it to this one, and they also did not follow the books which I think made it somewhat harder to tie things together for this one. It was beautifully shot with great compositions, sometimes shot too great for the sake of the film (if that makes sense). The shots were sometimes so beautiful and well put together that it felt like they couldn't go on with the scene without "ruining" it aesthetically, as if they didn't know what shot to put in because they just had a great one. There was a dolly-zoom that came absolutely from nowhere and didn't fit in at all, but it was still a great dolly-zoom. Also why I think the robbery-scene was so fantastic because most of it was all in one entire take. Keep in mind that the only reason that I'm mentioning this is because this was a really beautifully shot film, and I mean it in every sense of the word.
The robbery-scene was probably one of the best things that have ever happened to Swedish cinema in a very long time. The problem I had with this movie was that whenever there was a great action set-piece, it was great and did what it was supposed to do, but, where there could've been great set-pieces - they just edited them out and jumped ahead of the film. One segment that comes to mind is the scene in which Radovans daughter is going to murder one of his close friends (can't remember his name at the moment). And what they did there was that we just see her stabbing him, and then it's all over - we see her and Martin (the police) just freaking out and some flashbacks of what just happened, in other words what could've been another fantastic set-piece. I personally think that if we would've been shown the whole segment from the beginning to the end it would've added that extra suspense, the same exact suspense that we got during the robbery-scene. Fantastic.
A very good and solid finish to the trilogy of 'Snabba Cash' which has become very popular in Sweden. It also makes me proud.
Easy Money III: Life Deluxe
2013 [SWEDISH]
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Plot summary
JW now lives in exile and is more than ever determined to find out what happened to his missing sister Camilla. Every trace leads him to the world of organized crime in Stockholm. Jorge is about to do his last score – the largest robbery in Swedish history. But during the complicated preparations he meets a woman from his past – Nadja. Martin Hägerström is chosen to go undercover into the Serbian mafia, in order to get its notorious boss Radovan Krajnic behind bars. When an assassination attempt is made on Radovan, his daughter Natalie is pulled into the power struggle within the Serbian mafia.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
September 12, 2023 at 08:01 AM
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A solid finish - 7/10
Weaker but decent finish to a great trilogy
I think the Snabba Cash-trilogy has an undeservedly low rating here on IMDb, it might be just because it's a 'foreign' film to anyone not Swedish or it might be because great crime-thrillers have been made for a long time, just not by Swedes.
Anyhow, as it usually is, the first movie is the strongest, with every sequel being a little weaker than the last. And while the second one was really close to the mark of the original Snabba Cash, the third one really wasn't, and here's why.
First of all, Jorge, JW and 'Martin' were our main characters this time. I liked all thee of them - a bit too much actually, as I'll explain in a moment. First of all, this was without a doubt Jorges movie. I didn't mind that too much as he's a really good character and when he finally gets to that light at the end of the tunnel, you feel happy for him and kind of relieved that someone made it out of the criminal underworld with scars but alive. Martin's end wasn't bad but a bit too abrupt and without exposition about his future, whether or not he actually strikes down on the Serbian crime family now led by Nata. I also thought Nata's turn to her 'darker' side were a bit sudden and really should have gotten some more time - or realistically - she shouldn't have shunned Martin without demanding some kind of explanation, especially since he clearly went well beyond his authority to help her. The weakest end by far was JW. Yes, it wasn't his movie. Yes, it's just another believable example of what can happen in the criminal world. Yes, his death can be viewed as sort of redeemed by the director since he actually did get his revenge of Radovic. However, this guy was the most interesting character in both first movies, which made his 10 minutes of screen time here a bit... shameful. He shouldn't even be on the cover of the film. Kinnaman does a great job as usual but whenever you see him on screen, you want more, which is denied. I think that's a bit sloppy. They could easily have given him a more interesting ending or more screen time by cutting some from Jorge (did we really have to see him yell at construction workers at Spain or chase that little kid who stole his jacket?).
With that said, this movie also had some storytelling flaws compared to the other two. The whole 'it was "minor character in the background" all along!' was a bit predictable and almost a cliché by the year 2013. There were also a bit too many moments that rode on the suspense of disbelief that you can usually lend a movie like this just so the plot can get rolling. Too many deadly situations being turned because the main character somehow managed to 'sneak' or were just damn lucky.
So how do I rate this somewhat weaker but still decent end to the trilogy? 7/10! Still a good movie with some really adrenaline pumping scenes. Could've used more JW, less abrupt endings for the main characters (only one out of three got a proper one to be honest) and some smarter writing overall that didn't feel like it needed cop-outs to deliver. See it if you liked the other two!