Sweet Karma

Playboy Playmate of the Month (November 2010) Shera Bechard gives acting a whirl. This is her first, and possibly only film, so you better run to see it.

A 70s style revenge flick that takes place largely in a strip club run by the Russian mafia, it is violent and titillating at the same time.

Naturally, the mob suspects a rival, not the sister of one of it's girls. That will give Karma time to kill a few more.

The bodies keep piling up as Karma seeks revenge only to find in the end that the cost may be too high.

Cool action in a seedy setting.

I caught this film at Fantastic Fest in Austin, during a sold out screening. Clearly the reason the screening was sold out is that the lead actress was in attendance, days after winning an award for Next Wave Best Actress, so everyone wanted to know what the fuss was about. I won't bother going into the details about the plot since it's covered here by others, but I gotta say this was a cool little film. It's a nice modern take on the old style 70's revenge film. It's got a great energy, an engaging story, some bad-ass, albeit low-rent kill scenes, and yes, the performance from the first-time lead actress is a knock-out. She owns the screen. From the reaction of the audience, and the fact that almost 3/4 of them stuck around for the Q&A, I'd safely say that most others would agree with me. A perfect film? No. But a solid, must-see piece of entertainment? You bet.

I saw the world premiere of this movie at the 2009 Fantasia Movie Festival in Montreal. I went in with an open mind, not necessarily hoping or dreading anything. But I have to admit, my initial thoughts were that the "rape revenge" thing has been done to death. It seems like an easy way to have sex and violence in your movie and draw the most typical movie-watching crowd (ie. an easy way to make a fast buck).

Sweet Karma surprised me. Right off the bat, the movie has a very dark and gritty feel to it that draws you in. Shera Bedard is awesome as Karma, avenging the death of her sister. Having the "heroine" be a mute added a great dimension to her character. She does a great job of expressing emotions and intentions through her eyes and body language. She's really believable as a shy young woman who has nothing left to lose and forces herself to take out her anger on those who're responsible. This also adds an unexpected complexity to the movie, since Karma can't tell her story herself. There are sporadic "flashback"-type scenes early on which help to clarify things, and these do a great job of helping us understand what's going on.

Most of the rest of the cast is great too. The Russian accents don't sound forced or fake. The main "bad guys" are especially despicable, and I found myself wanting Karma to succeed in her self-appointed mission. One exception is John Tokatlidis, who was neither believable nor very interesting. In fact, when his character is focused on about halfway through, the movie's quality goes down a couple notches. He manages to bring it down all by himself.

One of the big draws for me about Sweet Karma is the fact that it's a purely Canadian movie. The story is based in Toronto, and it was entirely filmed there. Everything was financed by the crew, apparently with no outside help. Unfortunately, it seems like the story could've happened anywhere just by changing a few words in the script. There were almost no recognizable Toronto landmarks, and very few Toronto-specific scenes except maybe the airport. There's a scene near the beginning of the movie where the bad guys are joking about forming a hockey team, but it feels tacked-on and out of place. Almost like someone said "Hey, this movie doesn't feel Canadian enough, let's add some hockey dialog!" Despite this, it's great to see a purely Canadian production that's so engrossing and entertaining. Maybe the fact that it doesn't really "feel" Canadian is a good thing since the movie can appeal to a bigger audience outside the country... if they cut out that scene with the hockey dialog.

Obviously, sex and violence were portrayed. But not in an over-the-top way, only in a realistic way that fit with the theme of the movie. This definitely isn't PG-13 stuff, but it's not gratuitous either.

The rest of the audience really seemed to enjoy the movie too. There was loud applause after the credits, and the questions that people asked the crew during the Q&A session showed a lot of interest.

I'm really glad I went to see Sweet Karma, it's an excellent take on the old "revenge" theme. For me, nothing will ever beat High Plains Drifter as the best "revenge" movie, but Sweet Karma comes close, and ranks right up there as one of the best movies I've seen recently. For a purely independent film, the production values were really high, even matching or exceeding some of the stuff coming out of Hollywood these days... especially the ones that pretend to be "nitty gritty".

I enjoyed this movie. It had a nice pace, the lead actress was believable and gorgeous and who doesn't like seeing Euro Sex Slave Brokers in Toronto get their payback? This flick could have easily been an 8 or 9. It was simple, fun and compelling. But it just ran out of steam. The ending is pretty bland and unsatisfying. I mean, the whole movie you are watching the mute girl kick ass and you are waiting for her to SAY something or at least show more of her real self. She even writes on a piece of paper "What I am doing is not who I am", so there is this unresolved set up. Who is she? How does she feel about what she is doing? But don't get me wrong, this is fun, well-acted, low-budget, badly-lit B Movie action. Other reviewers have compared it to 1970s Grind-house and I can see the similarities. But it's really more than that. With a better ending and a little more production, this would have been a contender.

Totally watchable. Better than you think. The lead girl does a good job plus the eye candy is great. Watch it without your wife.

Karma is a mute woman whose sister has been found murdered in the woods, apparently by some Canadian Russian Mafia types. Strike up the theme from the Godfather, we are in for quite a ride.

Revenge is on the mind of Karma, and so she goes undercover, posing as a stripper to seductively weave her way into the evil and corrupt underworld of really mean criminals. Of course she manages to obtain a plethora of weapons and with the assurance of a military trained sniper, blows away a long line of extremely harmful people.

Shera Bechard is sufficiently sexy and seductive as Karma, but the story is silly and wears thin very quickly. As diversion for an hour and a half on a rainy day, Sweet Karma is passable mind candy.