Sweet Karma

Sweet Karma Will Hump Your Bad Dogma

Main Cast: Shera Bechard, John Tokatlidis

Director: Andrew Thomas Hunt

I’ll watch almost anything.  Sure, I have my favorite genres, but as far as I’m concerned every genre potentially has something great to offer.  So I had no qualms about watching Sweet Karma, Phase 4 Films girl revenge action flick.  I need to learn when to have qualms.

Sweet Karma stars Shera Bechard in the title role.  Karma is a pretty Russian girl coming to the United States to avenge the killing of her sister by the Russian mafia.  This particular arm of said mafia is involved in human trafficking, pornography, strip clubs and prostitution.  Karma dives right in and it’s all downhill from there.

When I can summarize a movie in 3 sentences chances are it’s either very complex and can’t be adequately described or mind-numbingly simple and shouldn’t ever be described.  Sweet Karma falls firmly in the latter camp.  There is nothing to the plot of this movie; it’s just a thin, thin frame upon which to hang soft core porn and ugly, bloody violence.  To make matters worse, the porn is not exciting unless you’re into rape and the violence is not only poorly executed, it’s stupidly unbelievable and inexplicably revolting.  Do you want to see a groin shot followed by a glimpse of a flying dismembered penis?  Me either, thanks.

Sweet Karma has not a single redeeming virtue.  Shera Bechard’s Karma is a nothing character.  So nothing, in fact, that the genius writers (kudos to James Fler, Andrew Thomas Hunt and Michael Paszt for penning this crap) and director (Andrew Thomas Hunt serving as double crapster) decide that she will be mute.  That’s right, the title character is mute.  She utters not a single word.  But she does get naked, get raped and shoot people.  Sheer brilliance for any lazy producer of bloody sleaze.

The rest of the cast can’t act, making the fact that they speak painful rather than a relief from the tedium of silent, wooden Karma.  If they had just made it a silent film it would have been a lot shorter, anyone who gets off on rape and sloppy bloodletting would still get their thrill and I would have been spared at least 45 minutes of pain.

But there’s no way I’m letting these “actors” off the hook.  They made this shit, they’re getting named.  The Russian baddies are Frank J. Zupancic, Christian Bako, Laura McLean and Lana Koseniv.  On the American side of evil we get John Tokatlidis, Mark Weibe, Steve Richard and Adam Tomlinson.  Between the 8 of them they have a whopping total of 10 big screen credits so I guess they have to pay the rent.  Shera Bechard’s one previous credit is in World’s Sexiest Nude Women.  Now there’s a shocker.

Not only do the story and acting suck, the production values are bottom drawer.  Shaky hand held camera work, grainy picture quality, too dark sets for “action” sequences (so you don’t see quite as much of the crappy quality) and sets that look like they would fall apart if you blew on them too hard.  The entire production is cheap garbage.

Sweet Karma may, honestly, be the worst movie I have ever seen through to the end.  It’s dismal, badly written, acted and set.  The premise of girl revenge is a thin veil for rape porn and badly executed violence.  The strippers aren’t even a little bit sexy (this opinion came from a man) and the whole thing reeks of low quality.  There is no reason for anyone to subject themselves to this “movie” unless you’re into low quality soft core rape porn.  If you are, let ‘er rip – this movie was made just for you.  Me?  I need to watch The Sound of Music to cleanse my soul.

Sue Millinocket

Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills  She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.