WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Scott LeBrun This viewer isn't about to convince anybody that he's just seen something particularly "good". He acknowledges that it IS a silly potboiler, with enough goof ball aspects to it to prevent one from ever taking it seriously. It's built on a reliable "root for the good guy" formula, even if said good guy has about as much personality as a bowl of shredded wheat. The villains are easily hate-worthy, the action is always fun (if improbable), and the location shooting more than adequate. It's all set to a blatantly manipulative, rousing soundtrack composed by Alfi Kabiljo.Real-life champion gymnast Kurt Thomas stars as Jonathan Cabot, an athlete convinced by his government to participate in a "game" that takes place in the distant country of "Parmistan". The governments' motivation in this venture is that they hope to build a satellite station in this country; the winner of the "game" is not only allowed to live (!), but is also granted one request. Jonathan duels with an evil assistant (Aussie martial arts icon Richard Norton) to the country's ruler (Buck Kartalian), fights off a thuggish competitor (Bob Schott), and falls in love with the rulers' luscious daughter (Filipino hottie Tetchie Agbayani).Along with truly laugh-out-loud moments and moments of moderate excitement, we get a fairly blazing pace and a pretty colourful atmosphere. (This was largely filmed on location in Yugoslavia.) Thomas may not leave much of an impression, but his physical abilities are nothing to be sniffed at. Conveniently, a structure resembling a pommel horse is situated in one locale so he is able to do what he does best. Agbayani is amusing as she initially comes off as an ice princess, and slowly warms up to our hero. Norton and Schott are good baddies; prolific character actor Kartalian is quite likeable as the ruler.The unqualified highlight is the fact that competitors must navigate their way through a "village of the mad", where Parmistan has rounded up its criminally insane. One dude severs his hand for no obvious reason; another guy wears a cloak with no back, allowing us to get an eyeful of his posterior. This, at least, is something unusual, and helps to make "Gymkata" somewhat memorable.Is this quality filmmaking? Maybe not, but one can't deny the entertainment value, as the utter cheesiness is served to us with some style by martial arts movie veteran Robert Clouse (of "Enter the Dragon" fame).Eight out of 10.

ramin99 I have an idea, this guy just won a medal in the Olympics, let's make a movie with him in the lead.The training for his preparation is reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's training in The Eiger Sanction, but instead of running after a hot chick he runs after a burly black guy on horse. The chick is just as hostile and sexy here, and he falls for her as any Caucasian man would at the sight of a beautiful Asian chick, even if she kicks him hard in the balls without uttering a word the very first time they meet. Then he has to climb stairs with his hands. I think Linda Blair's spider descent in The Exorcist was better.Their going to some other place close to the actual place they were supposed to go was totally unnecessary, yet a couple of gold moments ensued in this sequence. First the AK-47 jammed in one scene and our hero had to throw it out! Secondly, the bad guys machine gunned the walls around our heroes with German MP-40s of WWII vintage. This was repeated a half dozen times emphasizing the missing bullets very much in accord with s of zillions of bullets missed by the same machine gun in countless American WWII propaganda movies where the Nazis never shoot straight. Lastly a bar fix magically appears in an alley to help our hero dangle from it rotate-kicking everyone in sight.The tournament itself is very predictable with little artistic value so let me recount the famous village of the damned sequence. They may have hired a new director because it is very different from the rest of the movie. It is made like a video game so it's ahead of its time. My recommendation is stock up a ready supply of crack, whiskey, grass and magic mushrooms then sit back and enjoy this psychedelic masterpiece. This scene alone gets 3 stars.Reagan was one of the worst presidents the US has ever had, but his star wars defensive idea finally brought the Soviet economy to its knees. Just to put in perspective as to what our hero achieves with his gymnastics kicking antics suffice it to say that not even Chuck Norris and John Rambo combined had the sheer muscle nor the audacity to do such grand things for the US in their Missing in Action and Rambo movies.

joey-rodriguez I watching this on a rainy night back when I was a little boy in Guadalajara, Mexico. I started watching it a few minutes after it started, I was channel surfing while making me a cold glass of chocolate-milk and getting ready to have me some strawberry glassed cookies.I was about ten or eleven years old, before I knew it my mouth was wide open and I was submerged into the movie. The fights seemed so violent, I felt ive of the tiny American competitor and it was turning into one of those magical and rainy movie nights.I am one of those "dudes" that rent this movie often, although it is not a gem of cinematography I still enjoy the violence and craziness of the movie. My favorite part has to be "the village of the damn", if you have seen the movie you know what I am talking about. I having nightmares about that place, I wouldn't mind having to go thru it as long as I have a AK-47. If you have not seen it I recommend it, just don't expect a blockbuster.

HaemovoreRex Well, as others have quite rightly pointed out, this stands proud as a bad movie delight; From the preposterous plot to the absurdly, fortuitously placed gymnastics equipment, a likable yet curiously wimpish hero and even B-movie stalwart and martial arts expert Richard Norton playing the bad guy here, this has all the ingredients for a great time with friends and copious amounts of alcohol.Having said this, director Robert Clouse who brought us the classic Enter The Dragon, does show off a number of very well executed sequences in this which momentarily raise the picture to a higher level altogether - most notably in the often cited scenes set in a village exclusively populated by the criminally insane; Indeed, this segment of the film evokes an incredibly unique, creepy atmosphere the like that has seldom since been seen in any other film in my opinion (and I'm being serious here).In summary, if it's some harmless, carefree (and somewhat absurd) fun you're looking for, Gymkata certainly delivers the goods.