Gymkata (1985) – A Review
A review of the 1985 action film Gymkata, starring Kurt Thomas who combines his skills as a gymnast and karate to fight bad guys with a martial arts technique known as Gymkata
Ok, let’s try to figure this out.
The small country of Parmistan forces foreigners to play “The Game”, a savage endurance course where the participants have to try to manage not being killed. If someone ever wins and walks away alive, they are granted their life and a single wish. So far no one has survived this ‘Game’.
Cue Olympic gymnast Jonathan Cabot (Kurt Thomas), who gets recruited by the SIA to enter this contest. With his unique blend of skills and athleticism he surely can survive and when he does, he’s instructed to ask as his victory wish to allow the U.S. to set up a satellite system in this primo location.
Are we still following this? Already sounds very, very strange.
So, Cabot gets schooled in some training by pretty Princess Rubali, gets attacked by lots of bad guys and tries to survive the deadly game using his special ‘Gymkata’ skills – a combination of gymnastics and karate. Will he possibly be the ultimate victor!
“When gymnastics and karate are fused the combustion becomes an explosion”
Yeah, the famed Gymkata. What a nutty, goofy movie this is. Oh, it’s a hoot to be sure! If you enjoy watching ‘bad movies’ this one has all the fixings!
In 1978, Thomas became the first American to win a gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. He was expected to win more gold at the 1980 Olympics. However, because the USA boycotted the Games as retaliation for the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan Thomas didn’t get to compete. So, Thomas never got a chance to become an Olympic champion.
He was still a popular sports figure and that’s how he got lured into being the next big action star. Or at least, that’s what the plan was.
Gymkata is very much one of those fun bad action movies. Like Enter The Ninja, you can’t take any of it the least bit seriously. But if you sit back and enjoy all the bad qualities that make it up it can be a fun time. The nutty story, the poor acting, the ludicrous scenarios, the various ways they crowbar Thomas showing off his gymnastic skills. Gymkata is as close to being a Cannon Film as a movie could be without actually being one.
With a film designed around the talents of Thomas, of course his gymnastic talents had to be incorporated into the story. For instance, there’s one scene of him talking with the quiet Princess, so he does flips back and forth to fill in her answers to his questions. The only reason for these flips is it to show of that he can do backflips. I suppose it’s also meant show how he wins her heart – by doing backflips.
Throughout the film they have strategically placed gymnastics equipment “slyly” incorporated into the sets so Thomas could show off his stuff. The best and funniest one is when Thomas has to get through a village filled with crazed villagers, in the town square there is a pommel horse. Well, it’s not exactly a real pommel horse, they attempt to disguise it to not make it so obvious – but it’s ludicrously noticeable.
But heck, it makes the perfect excuse for Thomas to show off his gymnastics skills, spin around and kick a lot of bad guys.
While the bizarre combination of gymnastics and karate doesn’t add any excitement (they must of thought the idea would really catch on), there’s also fun to be had from the plain old bad filmmaking on display.
For instance there’s an extended foot chase through the narrow streets where we see consistently it’s close escapes of the bad guys firing machine guns at Thomas and the Princess. They turn a corner and the bullets hit against the wall or hit randomly placed bottles. This doesn’t just happen once or twice, but we’re talking five, six times! That’s pretty much what makes up the entire chase sequence.
There’s also some confusing and poor editing, like how we watch a car hit another car then it cuts and somehow the car is miraculously flipping over. How did that happen? We have no idea.
Thomas was obviously not an actor, he was hired for his gymnastic skills. And you have to give him credit for doing some impressive physical feats. He has a boyish look, so he doesn’t really come off looking like a traditional 80’s action star. He certainly wouldn’t fit into a Charles Bronson or Chuck Norris vibe. He comes off more as a knockoff version of Michael Dutikoff or Jean Claude Van Dam. He doesn’t really have much charisma and while he’s good at gymnastics, it doesn’t appear that his talents would translate much further than that. It’s not surprising his action career was limited to this film and didn’t go any further. His best bet probably would have been starring in Gymkata II – had this been a hit.
Gymkata is very much one of those fun bad movies. Like Enter The Ninja, you can’t take any of it the least bit seriously. It’s the cheesiness, the nutty story, the poor acting, the ludicrous scenarios, excuse to have Thomas show off his gymnastic skills and overall ridiculousness of the whole film is where it offers its entertainment.
but sit back and enjoy all the bad qualities that make it up. The nutty story, the poor acting, the ludicrous scenarios just so man can show off his gymnastic skills. Gymkata is as close to being a Cannon Film as a movie could be without actually being one.
The one good thing, is that the did decide to keep the film fairly straight forward. Run this deadly obstacle course and try to survive. Simple enough. Of course the course is filled with corny stunts, dummies falling off mountains and silly fights.
It’s filled with bad acting, poor production values, subpar stunts and a terrifically terrible story. The only real asset – and I guess the filmmakers knew it – was Thomas’ gymnastics talents to hold it together. Unfortunately, that was not nearly enough to make it a success.
Sadly, Thomas died in 2020 at the age of 64. He was well aware of his notoriety as star of Gymkata. He seemed like he had quite a sense of humor about being part what is often cited as ‘one of the worst films ever made’.
