Johnathan Cabot is a champion gymnast. In the tiny, yet savage, country of Parmistan, there is a perfect spot for a “star wars” site. For the US to get this site, they must compete in the brutal “Game”. The government calls on Cabot, the son of a former operative, to win the game. Cabot must combine his gymnastics skills of the west with fighting secrets of the east and form GYMKATA!
Gymkata was a video store staple back in the late 1980s. It had beautiful box art that promised an American Olympian delivering kicks to the faces of a pair of ninjas. While this is an accurate representation of a scene from the movie, the cover art is the best thing about this dreadful movie. Even the magnetic Australian martial artist Richard Norton is rendered ineffectual by the drab setting, color palette, costumes, and direction by Robert Clouse.
Clouse, the man behind the camera for the Bruce Lee classic Enter the Dragon, was repeatedly given the opportunity to repeat his earlier success and, each time out, proved that Enter the Dragon was purely held together by its ultra-charismatic star. Kurt Thomas, a real-life Olympian, is a great athlete with a terrible screen presence. Which is a problem since the entire concept is built around him carrying the picture. This proves entirely too much for the newbie, and his stilted line readings only add to the air of cheapness that hangs over the production.
Directed by: Robert Clouse
Written by: Charles Robert Carner, Dan Tyler Moore
Starring: Kurt Thomas, Tetchie Agbayani, Richard Norton
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