Easy Money III: Life Deluxe (2013)

Outwith of the big budget heavily directed cinematic movies that clog up the cinema schedules, you'll find a good line of well produced and engaging films. TV box sets are all the rage, but there are still plenty of good films. The Easy Money trilogy is one of them.I found this set of films by chance on BBC 4, and gave it a go. Each film gave me a good taste for more. What we have is a film centring round the underbelly of Swedish society covering drugs, crime, pimping, immigrants and wealth.It's guns, it's gangsters and it's lowlife. Yet, it's more than that. It's a multi-threaded set of thrillers that leads us on a difficult and uncomfortable journey as we see the leads tip-toe around their peers, before trying to crush them. It's dark, it's grim and frightening, and very cynical in its outlook on humanity. Yet it's really honest and depressingly so, but that look feels like we are seeing a more honest view of the underworld. It's a fresh outlook that doesn't hide the truth.The film is directed and shot in a very frugal manner, and this works. There is no glamour and it's all quite base. That's the hook to this fine trilogy.I really wish there was more, but maybe halting at three films was the correct end for this. I was engrossed in following the characters in this set of films. It's one that I'll revisit, and one that I'd recommend most others to give a try to also.

The first two films (while a tad generic, in places) were entertaining and well-executed with some strong performances and impressive set-pieces. This one is diabolically amateurish by comparison. Nothing about it is believable and the dramatic tension dissipates in a jumble of hackneyed 'who-gives-a-shit' plot twists.The main character of pts 1 & 2 finds himself relegated to a flimsy subplot and is given approx 6minutes of screen time and four lines of dialog before disappearing without a trace. Inexplicable.Huge plot contrivances smack of either pure laziness or casual disregard for the viewer's intelligence. In a flashback scene at the climax of the film, Jorge is shown mucking about with his lovely big bag of cash outside an exploded car in which he apparently left a grenade... Except five minutes earlier we clearly saw him hopelessly pinned down in the driver's seat of the same car with machine guns pointed at him, his bag of cash nowhere to be seen...How did he get out of the car without getting shot?? How did he retrieve the bag of cash??? No one knows, no one cares. Including the writers and director, apparently!

I came across this trilogy simply by seeing a trailer. I thought that it would be a straight flick about the mob but it wasn't. It's a typical Swedish flick or trilogy by which I mean, it moves slow, it's full of subplots and you just ants to know how things will work out.If you haven't seen the first two episodes then you can't pick in on this one and even as you may have seen the other you it still can be confusing.This one has the best action and in the trilogy. even as it isn't a well known trilogy, it is still worth picking up.Gore 1/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

The intentions were good - the idea to make a heightened third installment - an operatic finale to the series.But the filmmakers were not talented enough to pull it off.Instead it plays like a naive, illogical, unfocused and poorly written work of a B-rate hack filmmaker.First of all, who cares when everybody is a moron in your story. There is not one single character that shows genuine intelligence or smarts. Instead we are meant to root for these numb-nuts. If you want to play the world of Michael Mann (HEAT) or master Coppola you have learn how to write better.Who cares about logic if the filmmaking is strong enough. In this case it's not. Instead you are treated as an imbecile to believe that certain crucial plot moments are believable.I can't even begin to express the stupidity when the supposed drug-lord (played well when speaking his native tongue... ) is shot and almost killed, only to moments later be brought home as if nothing had happened. I hope this is not meant to be taken seriously.This is just the first in a string of equally flawed illogical weak points. This kind of poor screen writing usually belongs in straight-to-DVD movies.It's a shame because the filmmakers had good intentions.