Gymkata Dvd Review

The Skill of Gymnastics, The Kill of Karate.....One of the greatest tag lines ever. The trailer below is one of the classic trailers of all time. How bout the movie? Not one of the greatest but definitely an 80's action classic. I have fond memories of this as a kid when the ninja craze was at full force in the mid 80's. I remember watching this, Shoguns Ninja, and Enter the Ninja over and over. It had been at least 10 yrs or so since ive seen it last. It was still as cheesy and fun as I remembered.
The movie has a ridiculous plot about how America needs a fictional country named Parmistan's permission to use their airspace for an anti nuclear war satellite and the only way to get their permission is for one person to win their bloody game they hold every day it seems. Whats even worse is that Parmistan is suppose to be some Middle Eastern country but its full of white guys with bad hair pieces and turbans. The movie stars Kurt Thomas as an American Olympic gymnast who gets recruited and trained to defeat the game and get Americas wish for the airspace. The game is basically an obstacle course across the countryside where individuals race each other climbing ropes up a hill, across ravines while being tracked down by assassin ninjas. Once you get so far in the course you come to a town full of crazies. Which leads to one of the weirdest scenes of the movie. Once Kurt reaches the town there is a slow motion sequence thats full of dramatic tension and sound effects thats tonally different from the rest of the movie. I guess just one more thing to add to the uniqueness of the movie.
The movie has some cheesy stock machine gun and punch sound effects and of course there are gymnastic apparatus that happen to appear randomly throughout the movie, convenient for the hero to use.
The King of Parmistan I swear looks just like a poor man's Mel Brooks. Ridiculous outfits, ridiculous plot, ridiculous sound effects, ridiculous choreography but somehow I still love the movie. Recommended for those who love "movies so bad theyre good" category. Pour you a beer and kick back and watch this with a bunch of buddies and get ready to laugh. A cool drinking game would be to take a drink everytime Kurt does any kind of gymastic flip. I guarantee you will be hammered by the time the movie is over.

trailer