This is one of the strangest kung fu movies I've seen in a long time. I caught this little gem on late night TV, and I missed the first half hour so.

Anyway, this movie stars American gymnast Kurt Thomas who trains with the stereotypical Asian martial arts master after the disappearance of his father in some remote country. Our hero combines karate and gymnastics, and thus we get "gymkata." After a bunch of training scenes Kurt goes to the remote country to enter this contest which is basically an oversized obstacle course. The one catch of the course is that the contestants get chased down by the evil general's ninja warriors (who wear red hats that look a lot like the hats Devo wore in their "Whip It" video) and are killed if caught. And this is all part of the rules. Why the hell anyone would enter, I don't know -- I must have missed the explanation of the reward for winning.

Anyhow, the general guy, who wears a goatskin vest, shows the runners the course by forcing some prisoners to run it. The prisoners are quickly killed cause they have nothing and the ninjas have spears, swords, and bows, and arrows. The night before the race our hero meets the princess of the country and helps escape some guards. The odd thing about the princess is that she cannot be a blood relative of her father -- he looks like Mel Brooks, and she does not look like any of the other people from the kingdom (if you see this movie, you'll know what I mean).

So the next day the contest begins, and everyone starts running. Here's where the fun begins. At one point all the runners who are still alive reach a bunch of ropes spanning a gorge. The first two across are the typical huge muscle bound bad runner, and some guy who looks a bit like Jackie Chan. Then two other guys cross, one of whom seems to have magical teleporting powers (I'll get back to that). One of the guys falls into the gorge. His fall is hysterical because it's so obvious that the body is a plastic body dressed in the guy's clothes, and he hits with a sound similar to a sandbag falling onto a stage. It's so cheesy you can't help but laugh.

The scene switches to the big muscle guy, named Thor, and the Jackie Chan wannabe. Thor decides he's gonna kill everyone himself and kills the guy. Then he fights Kurt Thomas, at which point he takes an arrow straight through the heart, yet he snaps the arrow shaft off and keeps going. I'm not a doctor or anything, but that arrow should have done a little more damage.

The best part of this movie is when our hero reaches a town he has to run through that is full of crazy people. To emphasize the craziness of these people, one guy, after failing to kill Mr. Thomas, cuts off his own hand and runs off crying. Hmm, if I was crazy, that's the first thing I'd do.

Here's where the mystical teleporting contestant comes in. He was well behind everyone else at the gorge, yet he makes it to the town ahead of everyone else. Then the town full of crazies all start attacking Kurt in a big swarm. If they're so crazy, why don't they kill each other? He runs into Thor again, who's intent on killing him, but the crazies pitchfork Thor in a pigpen. Amazingly enough, whoever built this town just happened to decide to put a pommel horse in the middle of the street -- convenient for Kurt, who does some Gymkata and beats up the entire town. Kurt runs some more, then is rescued by his father who was dressed as a ninja the whole time. Just as quickly as he appears, Kurt's father takes an arrow in the back. Then Kurt fights the evil general, kills him, and everyone lives happily ever after. Then some bizarre message about the U.S. Star Wars space defense comes up, and the movie ends.

Rating: 2 turkeys.