Molloy (Ray Liotta) is an absolute
mess. He might have a first name but I forgot it.
But back to Molloy, he's a drug addict, alcoholic, small time
stick up man and the American expatriate is doing all of this
in Australia. And people say America isn't an
exporter. On this day Molloy is supposed to meet master
criminal Mack (Dominic Purcell) at some place at an exact time
for some kind of master heist. While I'm not a criminal,
it has been my experience that drug addicted alcoholics make
for bad sidekicks in just about everything, especially
something that requires them to be somewhere on time.
Hell if I know why Mack didn't know this simple, self-evident
truth. Guess what? Molloy didn't show up for the
gig, partially because he was too busy plowing into the side
of some building while having a massive, cocaine induced heart
attack, and now Molloy has to do this job all by
himself. The job goes poorly, Mack gets pinched by the
authorities, Molloy survives and also does a little time for
driving drunk but he will get his life together eventually,
but 'Bad Karma' seems to be following him everywhere he will
go in his new life.
Some years have passed, Molloy is all cleaned up, clean
shaven, is doing some clean living… note that we saw him
eating a salad for lunch which is something only clean living
people do… plus he has a decent job and the love a good woman
(Vanessa Gray). Life couldn't be any better. What
could possibly go wrong?
How about Mack getting out of
jail? Mack could do right, just like Molloy, but where's
the fun in that? Mack tracks down Malloy at a local
quickie mart and proceeds to kill everybody there, while
making it look like Malloy did this. Not cool.
Plus don't forget that Molloy still has a bum ticker which
tends to act up at even the slightest hint
of stress. To make things more
stressful for Molloy, Mack has taken to showing up unannounced
at Molloy's crib pretending to be an old friend. Molloy
probably should just tell his girl that Mack is a psycho
criminal he used to hang out with while robbing folks, but
wait… Molloy never told his girl that he's an ex-con.
Again, I've never been a criminal but if I were in the dating
scene as an ex-criminal, my standard line would be 'Hi, my
name is Chris, I'm an ex-con… and you got my heart under
arrest baby'. Ice broken, full disclosure and a killer
opening line. How hard was that Molloy?
So Mack keeps putting the squeeze on Molloy, note he has the
video showing Molloy at the quickie mart massacre, and Molloy
keeps clutching his chest with all Mack wants is for Molloy to
make up for that lost time years ago and do one last job with
him. It can't come to that. It ends now.
Heart attack guy versus the super fit angry guy with the porno
'stache. It seems to me that Heart Attack guy doesn't
stand a chance. But I could be wrong.
One thing we can say about Suri Krishnamma's thriller 'Bad
Karma' is that it is at least a competent piece of cinematic
story telling. Ray Liotta might not have stepped too far
out of his comfort zone but he did do well in this role,
Dominic Purcell was subsequently menacing, aided a lot by that
completely oppressive mustache he was sporting which had
badass written all over it, and Vanessa Gray is absolutely
stunning. There's a lot of violence, a little skin, a
little action, a little drama and so it does has all the
prerequisites that are required for a solid thriller, but for
me at least 'Bad Karma' was ultimately all so
rudimentary.
The story that we're being told is very similar to the many
that have come before it, but alas didn't deliver anything new
or fresh to narrative which could've separated itself from
these other tales and as such came off as very familiar, dare
we even say stale. Since the story was so familiar it
was also fairly predictable which also lessened the amount of
thrills being delivered our way.
But while the story didn't necessarily electrify us here at
the FCU, even though we are notoriously easy to electrify,
familiar, tired and stale doesn't necessarily equate into
unwatchable and lacking entertainment. I know it sounds
like it does, but it doesn't. As we mentioned earlier
the performances were solid, with most of this solid action
coming way via Dominic Purcell who was chewing up scenery like
it was a stick of juicy fruit. Again, we question the
master criminal status of anyone whose main accomplice is a
crack head, but Mr. Purcell all by his lonesome made this
movie worth watching, and while it was pretty predictable,
Krishamma does pace his movie well enough so that one won't
become bored while watching it. That is if you were to
ask me.
And clearly you are asking me. 'Bad Karma' isn't fresh
or original or new or anything remotely similar those
adjectives, but we there is something to be said for doing
something familiar and doing it well.
