Featured Audience Ratings

• Al S

  
  A new crime classic. A masterpiece. A raw, stylish, exciting and explosive crime-thriller. Director, Daniel Espinosa crafts a fine, skillful and mesmerizing blend of characters, action, suspense and plot. It ranks with the works of Martin Scorsese. It comes from comes from great… More
  A new crime classic. A masterpiece. A raw, stylish, exciting and explosive crime-thriller. Director, Daniel Espinosa crafts a fine, skillful and mesmerizing blend of characters, action, suspense and plot. It ranks with the works of Martin Scorsese. It comes from comes from great material that rivals with Stieg Larson. A riveting and tremendously exciting thrill-ride. An adrenaline-charged and heart-pounding movie that just shines and is a complete knockout. It grabs you and dose not let go until the very earth-shattering conclusion. It's bold, gripping, surprisingly moving and breathtaking. An intensely compelling and very powerful film. It's more than sizzle, it's red-hot entertainment that's fast, furious and laced with double-crosses and consequences. An intriguing and very involving first-rate thriller. A trio of brilliant performances from their three electric needs. Joel Kinnaman is sensational, he shows he's a promising and compelling leading man with charm, subtly and a fierce rage that's carefully hidden and shown only in the right moments. Mattias Padin is excellent. Dragomir Mrsic is electrifying, showing to be fearful and surprising vulnerability.

• Mike S

  
  Superbly exciting crime thriller, based on the best-selling novel with the same name, by Swedish author and attorney Jens Lapidus. It's an engrossing story, where we follow the lives of three men - all from different cultures, but whose illegal activities bring them together at… More
  Superbly exciting crime thriller, based on the best-selling novel with the same name, by Swedish author and attorney Jens Lapidus. It's an engrossing story, where we follow the lives of three men - all from different cultures, but whose illegal activities bring them together at various points throughout the film. Mainly, however, it concerns the fascinating double life of Johan "JW" Westlund; an echonomics student who lives a luxurious life in the social spheres of the upper class elite, and pays for it by doing crime on the side. Joel Kinnaman, who is best known outside the borders of Sweden for his role in <i>The Killing</i>, does an excellent job with the character, making him believable and incredibly interesting, as he gets sucked deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld of Stockholm and its suburbs. Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with Kinnaman when I saw him in <i>The Darkest Hour</i> and <i>Safe House"</i>(the latter of which is also directed by Swedish-Chilean film-maker Daniel Espinosa), but here he is in his right element and brings a lot of nuance and subtlety to his performance. Another thing I really loved about this movie, is that it doesn't just show the ugly side of our characters' exploits. They abuse, trade in drugs and engage in corrupt and shady affairs, yet the movie never forgets about their humanity. In example, some of the film's most riveting and heart-gripping moments comes when Mrado, a brutal Serbian torpedo played by Dragomir Mrsic, tries to balance his violent life with taking care of his young daughter. It added something to the story that felt very authentic and original. Technically, it's really well-made to boot. Theis Schmidt's outstanding editing, in unison with David Espinosa's firm and superlative directing, gave it a very professional touch, with a pacing that operates at the perfect speed. I have nothing to complain about there whatsoever. Not many outside Sweden have probably heard of this film, but if you enjoyed the <i>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i>, or any of the other Stieg Larsson films, you should definitely not miss this. I thought this was even better in some ways, which should be saying something about just how qualitative it is. All in all, a surprisingly great neo noir piece, with powerful performances and a highly suspenseful storyline. I expected mediocracy, but was instead presented with a top notch action thriller, that kept me glued to my seat throughout.

• Walter M

  
  In "Easy Money," JW(Joel Kinnaman) is studying economics at university while driving a cab. One night at a party, he takes a liking to Sophie(Lisa Henni) but is told by his rich friends that she is so very much out of his league. In any case, it is probably a good thing… More
  In "Easy Money," JW(Joel Kinnaman) is studying economics at university while driving a cab. One night at a party, he takes a liking to Sophie(Lisa Henni) but is told by his rich friends that she is so very much out of his league. In any case, it is probably a good thing that they do not know about his writing term papers for his fellow students, along with working for Abdulkarim(Mahmut Suvakci), a local crime boss. One such job for him involves tailing Jorge(Matias Varela) who recently escaped from jail, which brings him to the attention of Radovan(Dejan Cukic), Abdulkarim's rival. JW even goes above the call of duty, by rescuing Jorge from a savage beating from Mrado(Dragomir Mrsic). I always admire a film with ambition like "Easy Money" to tell a multi-faceted story from as many different angles as possible to show the emotional cost of crime. While many of the surface details may seem familiar, the difference here is this being Sweden which may appear to outsiders to be as close to a classless society as possible in this world. But dig deeper and that's not the case at all with JW, from a small town in the north, being as much an outsider as the immigrants. However exaggerated it might be, there is a clear physical delineation between the fair haired Swedish characters and the darker complexioned Spanish, Serbian and Arab characters. That's not the only troubling aspect of the movie as it could have been much more tightly edited with an ending that seems sudden, even with a handy dandy epilogue. And it crosses into sentimental territory too often, especially with the Mrado and Lovisa(Lea Stojanov) Show which occasionally feels like it could have come from an entirely different movie.