Somewhere around the time Michael Bay began developing a Skibidi Toilet movie, it became natural to wonder if Hollywood’s desperate trend-chasing could get any sadder. But while the disposable nature of such products makes it easy to forget their ubiquity, the truth is that Hollywood has been shamelessly trying to profit from flash-in-the-pan trends ever since Train Pulling into a Station II: Training Day. So the next time you roll your eyes at an update on the Toys “R" Us movie, keep in mind that ripped-from-the-headlines filmmaking already reached its odd nadir decades ago.
Today is the 40th anniversary of Gymkata, easily the only movie to feature the ancient art of gymkata. Released in 1985 as an ill-conceived attempt to cash in on the growing popularity of gymnastics, Gymkata stars world champion gymnast Kurt Thomas as Jonathan Cabot, the most Frenchly-named American patriot west of Louisiana. A cross between a Bond movie, Bloodsport, and brain damage, Gymkata is a wild misfire that remains riveting for all the wrong reasons.
