Movie : Gymkata (1985)

Its funny, i wonder why no one has ever thought of merging gymnastics and martial arts... oh wait someone has in the film Gymkata! Starring real gymnastics world champion Kurt Thomas Gymkata is listed as one of the worst movies of all times, and scores frequently in those "so so bad they are good" lists so lets give it a try...

Gymkata has a basic (and fairly ludicrous plot): an Olympic gymnastic is hired by the US secret service to win a deadly tournament in an obscure central Asian country (which is still stuck in medieval times) so the "winner's request" can be to site a missile early warning station there! Most of the film is a series of action set pieces, some of which are actually pretty good. The times where Thomas utilises "gymkata" however are hilarious and tend to rely on extremely lucky positioning of helpful props such as a pair of bars in a lunatic asylum which just happens to form the perfect pommel horse!

Although terrible on so many levels the film is of course fantastic! Its well worth seeing for many reasons including the unintentional hilarity and the performance of the King who seemed to be channelling Mel Brooks throughout.