Sweet Karma

I can't say I enjoyed this movie. For that it was just not good enough. The cinematography wasn't good at all, shaky camera in some scenes, too dark in a lot of scenes what made it look like an amateur shot it. The theme is something I normally like to watch, nothing beats a good revenge movie but in this case it was just mediocre. The acting wasn't great either, some of them were better than others but still it wasn't great. I wonder what people like so much about this movie because I didn't see it.

This is one shoddy movie, that plays off like some really bad z grade movies I've seen of past. It has been shot like a pure bottom grade movie. We have hottie sensation, Sheri Berchard here, probably the only's film's asset, amidst some strip scenes, private * dancing, and some younger honeys. She's nicknamed, get this, Karma, a mute 20's woman who infiltrates an underground sex trade, in search of her sister, who's supposedly dead. This business is led by the usual scum you expect to see, characters that are now so stereotypical of so many other films, of past, set around this subject, most of them bad too. The nastiest of the baddies is Stefan, this actor obviously reveling in his fifteen minutes, driving a new girl, a much averse party, to suicide. Yeah, cheap blood here too guys. But sexy Berchard is someone you don't want to mess with. She's got her s**t together. She can put you under an hypnotic spell with her sexiness, Stefan falling for her like candy, and paying dearly for it, but he too is no idiot. About every actor in this movie is terrible, they all deserve a clubbing. I've only seen this movie once through, a couple of twists near it's end, one that came as quite a surprise, with quite a backfiring consequence for it's innocent party, but beside that, Sweet Karma is just sheer garbage, it's pimp characters, one a woman, all so reminded me of the ones in that much better movie, Freight, with damn much better actors. No, this one I'm afraid, earns it's place alongside Ladies Of The Lotus.

Andrew Thomas Hunt is already a few years in the television business as a writer and producer and by now he was ready to become first time director of this revenge flick. Andrew is also a photographer and by circumstances he came in contact with Shera Bechard, the main lead. By seeing her face and body he knew immediately that she was perfect for the role. And let me say, she was. Sadly this could be her only film project. She's still modelling and is going for that part but we are stuck here with her and she did an amazing job. Just to play the part of Karma is amazing, she needs to go *, gave a lot of blood over her and act like she's a mute. She proofs as being Playboy's Playmate of November 2010 that she has more to offer than just her funbags. If this was made back in the seventies it would be a straight exploitation flick in the style of Last House On The Left. It is never that gory or bloody but it's just brutal, but not exaggerated as in for example Horseman. Still it's a nice flick to see with a great plot. Easy to see that it was low budget too, they never used extra lighting for some shots which add to the exploitation atmosphere. I liked it a lot even as a being a gorehound. Catch it while you can.

The story flowed well and it was a lot of fun to watch. I thought Shera did a really good of portraying the Karma character. She emoted really well as Karma and seemed believable and true. Definitely have read some horror stories about sex trafficking nightmares. This movie should be mandatory viewing for young women who might be vulnerable to that sort of exploitation, because it shows a woman getting revenge on sex traffickers. So, instead of simply following the herd and being a victim, this movie plants the idea that there are other options. Definitely recommended..

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.

The last few years have seen many an attempt at emulating the 'grindhouse' style of the 70s and early 80s, with the aid of retro graphics, editing and music, plus computerised filters applied during post production to give that cheap, grainy drive-in look and feel. Sweet Karma employs none of these fancy tricks, and yet it proves to be one of the more satisfying exploitation experiences in recent memory: the film-makers tell their cool revenge tale with the requisite levels of sex and violence, but without any of the artificiality or pretension that has spoilt many a similarly themed movie. For once, this feels like the real deal rather than an OTT tribute or parody. Playboy playmate Shera Bechard plays the titular character Karma, a beautiful mute Russian girl who goes looking for her sister Anna (Patricia Stasiak), who travelled to Canada in search of work only to find herself forced into Toronto's underground sex trade by ruthless criminals. Using both her brains and her scorching hot bod, Karma sets about dispatching the low-life thugs, sparking a gang war in the process, and it's not long before Toronto is knee deep in dead scumbags. This plot clearly owes a lot to classic exploitation films such as Ms.45 and They Call Her One Eye, but it still manages to carve its own identity, helped by some believable performances, well executed brutality, and a few unexpected plot turns, including a cool twist ending that genuinely caught me by surprise.

I can't say I enjoyed this movie. For that it was just not good enough. The cinematography wasn't good at all, shaky camera in some scenes, too dark in a lot of scenes what made it look like an amateur shot it. The theme is something I normally like to watch, nothing beats a good revenge movie but in this case it was just mediocre. The acting wasn't great either, some of them were better than others but still it wasn't great. I wonder what people like so much about this movie because I didn't see it.

My assignment for class was to review one of the movies I saw during the film festival so I picked this one to review because it was my favourite. OK, I did not expect to see this movie at the fantasia film festival. It was not on my list of movies to see because I had not seen it advertised anywhere. I saw a poster for it when I was walking out of another movie and it happened to be the next movie playing in the room I was just walking out of so I went to buy tickets to see it. Some of the movies I saw during the film festival were more like art and not necessarily intended for everyone. They are more like people's experiments in making movies. Then there were movies that were meant to entertain in the classic way. This movie fit more in the latter category. And in that way it was really good. The story of a mute Russian girl who wants to avenge her sister's death in a Toronto prostitute ring is not necessarily ground breaking but it makes for a very entertaining movie. I checked out some of the actors in the movie on IMDb and they're movie experience is small. But it did not seem that way in the movie. They were really believable. Especially the Russian boss guy and his Russian underling. Plus the main actress who plays Karma is really hot and she was a lot of fun to watch. Especially when she is beating up on guys. The fight scenes were really well done. Most of the story was good but I don't know why that cop had to be there near the end. I think he was the only bad part about the movie because he really wasn't very good. The end of the movie had me very surprised too. I think that was a great way to finish it. If it plays at any other film festivals near you, you should definitely go see Sweet Karma. I am giving it 7 stars because of the cop guy who annoyed me. Otherwise this would get a 8.

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 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.