hyped garbage

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

They were trying to make a serious movie, correct? Then they failed, so 0 stars. However, if they were trying to sneak a comedy into the theatres, then I will warily offer up 2 stars. I mean, that daft king, the Parmistan half-wits and the Crazies Race. Comedy, right? Anyway, this might be a fun trip down memory lane for people who caught it on late-night cable in the 80s or 90s but if you value your time this is an unmitigated pile of Parmistani cheese. Were U.S. medal winners in an Olympic games that didn't even include half or more of the world's best athletes so popular that Hollywood was willing to throw money at skinny, mullet-wearing midgets in lead roles? And a personal nitpick: martial arts are about as pointless and useless as 13-century atonal chants. I mean, other than as a demonstration of Ye Olden Days. Because if you're trying to kill a guy in the 20th century, you don't send 10 guys in black dresses and diapers on their heads. You have a guy shoot the intended victim. It's called a gun. And it's pretty effective. You martial arts losers need to restrict yourselves to teaching kids self-esteem at the local strip mall. Otherwise your skills have zero practical application in the real world. Yak-Mala !!

American champion gymnast Jonathan Cabot (woodenly played by handsome and muscular real-life Olympic champion gymnast Kurt Thomas) travels to the remote country of Parmiston to participate in a deadly competition that hasn't been won by an outsider in 900 years.Director Robert Clouse, working from Charles Robert Carner's patently absurd script, treats the laughably ridiculous premise with utmost misguided seriousness, stages the martial arts fights with aplomb, and keeps the enjoyably inane story moving along at a snappy pace. Moreover, this film offers a wondrous wealth of gut-busting howlers: Bad guys don't bleed despite getting pumped full of bullets by machine guns, both an iron bar and a pommel horse just happen to be exactly right where they are needed for key action set pieces, a mist-shrouded town populated by colorful, yet dangerous crazies, and so on. Tetchie Agrayani looks positively ravishing as the feisty Princess Rubali, Richard Norton snarls it up nicely as the evil Zamir, Bob Schott cuts an intimidating figure as hulking brute Thorg, and a hilariously miscast Buck Kartalian serves as a prime source of sidesplitting unintentional humor as a pompous king who resembles an old Jewish vaudevillian. Alfi Kabiljo's rousing score and Godfrey A. Godar's slick cinematography are both up to par. A real wacky'n'tacky hoot.

despite the fact that this film is pretty poorly done from from every every aspect you can think of,it's still manages to be a guilty pleasure.it comes off more as a Mel Brooks parody type of a movie than an actual serous attempt at film making,although it does try to take itself seriously,which of course makes it all the more funny.there are definitely a lot of eye rolling moments here.and yet,this is nowhere near as bad as many so called movies floating around out there.there's some entertainment value here,and it isn't all that painful to watch,relatively speaking.try Dark Town,or Dracula 3000,if you really want to know pain,and then get back to me.as for this one,i give it a 7/10

This movie beckons the question : What does men's gymnastic and cloaked, ninja henchmen on horses have in common ? Both are an intricate part of director, Robert Clouse's, vision. After his collaboration with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and Game of Death, Jim Kelly in Black Belt Jones and Jackie Chen in the Big Brawl, Robert Clouse cleverly blended campy masterpieces like the Ultimate Warrior (with Yul Brynner), Lee Van Cleef as the "stunt-ed" Master and this relatively unknown gem.Gymkata's protagonist is "faster than fire" Johnny Cabot (adequately played by Kurt Thomas, a gold medalist at the 1978 World Championships in gymnastics). Cabot's father was on a secret mission for the US government to secure "favors" of a country call Parmistan (actually filmed in the former Yugoslavia). They have a certain custom there which involves "the Game" and the 1 wish imparted to its survivor (a.k.a. winner). Major countries across the world are competing to win. Apparently, Mr. Reagan's "Star Wars" project is on the line. Johnny is sent in as a backup to his father and to win the game. To do so he is given the help of the Princess of Parmistan (who doesn't utter one word until 16 minutes into the movie and seems to be the mentor and acting coach of Devon Aoki) and her "gymkata" grand masters. Their training turns him from an adequate fighting gymnast to a lean, and relatively polite hopping machine.The most important and relevant question one needs to ask oneself is "what is gymkata"? Gymkata seems to be a fighting form that combines gymnastics with some generic un-named martial art. Its principles involve lots of running and jumping around. To be proficient in gymkata, one must also master the lost weapon skills of pommel horse, high bar and floor exercise. Martial arts veteran, Richard Norton (Zamir), bares his chest and hams it up as the villain. Norton's fighting skills are severely in check and underused, however, this movie's influence can still be seen in other movies (for example, the pommel horse scene seems to have been a huge influence on the Wachowskis and a certain scene involving Neo and many Smiths). The "Game" of Parmistan is an "iron man"-like event. There is first a race that leads to cliff rope climb, followed by a rope bridge, more running, hill climbing, running through the forest and then surviving the Village of the Damned. Whomever survives gets just 1 request and is revered by the local population. Big Whoop !! Unfortunately, the director's pedigree and the presence of Norton does not provide for anything more than laughable combat scenes. This movie is in no way to be taken seriously. From the 80's hair and 80's clothes, to the ridiculous plot and silly fighting is sure to put a smile on the face of the most disgruntled person. Johnny is whiny and annoying as the hero (think of Luke except much, much whinier). The plot, acting and action is laughable. It is enjoyable and easy to watch, but is geared towards showing off the talents of Kurt Thomas. I am sorry, Kurt, but you are no Bruce Lee. You aren't even good enough to lick the boots of Bruce's #1 fan and impersonator, Bruce Li. That's okay, though. You may not be the best of the best, but you sure look funny trying. Keep up the good work, Yorick.