Review of Sweet Karma (2009) by Douglas M — 24 Jun 2011

The basic premise of this had potential. If done right, it could have been an awesome femme fatale flick, like the "Kill Bill" movies (minus the assassin training, naturally). But still, a visceral, action-packed tale of revenge, nonetheless. Instead, what we get is a film that is approximately 50% stripping (seriously, I don't think "Zombie Strippers" gave stripping this much screen time), and largely predictable plot devices as the rest. Oh, and plot holes: For example, apparently undercover cops in Canada never call for backup, and regularly kidnap, handcuff and drug suspects, rather than take them in to the station.

Not helping matters any is the director's bizarre notion that speeding up the film during action scenes somehow makes them more engaging. As anyone who's seen Benny Hill, or the Three Stooges knows, all this does is make things look cartoonish. Ultimately, what you've got here is nude/scantily clad women dancing, punctuated by a paint-by-numbers plot, and the occasional scene of Karma killing someone twice as fast as it actually happened. The cumulative effect is that "Sweet Karma" feels significantly longer than its 85 minute running time. Unless you're really hard up for cash to the point where you can't visit an actual strip club, there's no compelling reason to watch "Sweet Karma." And even then, you'd be better off just sticking to the internet.