Episode 70 — Gymkata: LIVE!

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Recorded live at Largo in Los Angeles, Michael Showalter joins Paul, June, & Jason to discuss the next level bonkers movie that combines gymnastics & karate, Gymkata! They’ll get into the Kurt Thomas flipping as he talks to himself scene, the questionable effectiveness of arrows in the film, flag ninjas, the village of the crazies, and the infamous pommel horse scene. Plus, audience questions make us wonder how the director of Enter The Dragon went from working with Bruce Lee to Kurt Thomas. Make sure to go check out Hell Baby in theaters on Sept. 6th or right now on iTunes!

[robinsbruce 4985]

This movie is made of garbage. Beatiful, ridiculous garbage.

[AJValliant 266]

I enjoyed this greatly, and thought Jason was in top form...but did he also seem a bit drunk to anyone? Mind, I'm fully in support of all of them being tipsy for every episode, but I got the distinct impression the Scnapps had been Gotten into.

[JamesCrackCorn 33]

Movie Pitch: An American Werewolf in Parmistan

[ill Neal 42]

hey no joke guys, a funny personal story about gymkata...

 

when i was a little kid, my dad and brother were on vacation (guys' night out!) and one evening we saw this movie playing on TV back at the hotel. being little kids, but not too little to recognize a "good" bad movie, we LOVED it. we loved it so much in fact that when we got home our parents sat us down for the talk.

 

no not the sex talk, but the talk about strangers with candy, strangers with rape vans, and killer clowns trying to lure children into their clown rape cars (how many abducted children can he fit in there?!?!). the talk about how we shouldn't trust anyone who claims to be a representative of the family if we do not know them. so we had a family "safe word", so for instance if my parents were in an accident and had to send a coworker to pick us up they could say "hey, your mom sent me to get you guys. i know you've never met me before, but the secret word is gymkata" and if they said that we knew that we should trust them and get in the car with them.

 

some important facts. first, i was never raped or even approached by a clown. second, i am over 30 now so don't try and approach me and lure me into your clown car. i mean i am still likely to get in a car with you if you mentioned gymkata, but if you are a pedo clown rapist i figured i'm probably not your ideal victim...

 

much love for a film that has given my family an impenetrable level of security... gymkata.

[sorrykansas.com 77]

Please, come to Lawrence, KS PLEASE!!! We can handle it, for real. Fuck Missouri.

 

 

Seriously though, if you bring the show to Lawrence, I'll work for free to help sell the place out!

[brotherTodd 22]

During the pommel horse scene, even the soundtrack got tired of itself.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I'd never realized that "Team America: World Police" took so much from "Gymkata"! They recruit the guy because he's good at ONE thing, and that is the world's greatest gymnast, but he's apparently terrible at everything else, as evidenced by the training sequence. Is it easier to take a master gymnast and turn him into a supreme fighter, or would it be easier to turn a supreme fighter into a master gymnast? And why is the gymnastics aspect of it so fucking important?

 

Did he say that The Game is different every time? Why do we see them do the SAME things then later?

 

Oh, how about when the guy blindfolds himself and does the flippy spinny stuff with the knives? The blindfold did NOTHING! He wasn't doing anything that really required use of his eyes!

 

"Those men among others out there will train you!"

[imhatch 271]

this movie making june realize she likes gymnastics is like the room making me realize i fuckin love football

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

this movie making june realize she likes gymnastics is like the room making me realize i fuckin love football

The Room made me realize that I like wearing a tuxedo in situations where I would have never thought of wearing a tuxedo.

[SimonJosephTruebloodIII 2]

His face was a goddamn mess.

[MJ Wycha 3]

Can't believe you guys didn't talk about this bit of hilarity and comedy missed opportunity:

When Kurt Thomas is attempting to rescue the princess, he defeats some bad guys by swinging on a high bar in an alley, kicking them in the face (they actually just kind of run into his feet). Then he kicks a random innocent dude on a bicycle. Thomas checks on him and says "You'll be ok," and runs off. What is the point of having him kick innocent bicycle dude?

I was totally expecting bicycle dude to be the guy who threw water in Thomas' face, and he'd make a funny comment about stupid Americans or something. But they didn't follow through.

[jeffdacock 64]

Man, they gave Patrick Stewart a crazy wig for this one

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Man, they gave Patrick Stewart a crazy wig for this one

I thought he looked like Mr. Blue from "Reservoir Dogs" myself.

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

This movie was on every other week, Saturday afternoon film, KTVT Channel 11 in Dallas. I watched it EVERY SINGLE TIME! I was just fascinated by how I couldn't understand what was happening. I thought that this is why we were afraid of Russia. Because everything in Russia was this.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

This movie was on every other week, Saturday afternoon film, KTVT Channel 11 in Dallas. I watched it EVERY SINGLE TIME! I was just fascinated by how I couldn't understand what was happening. I thought that this is why we were afraid of Russia. Because everything in Russia was this.

I also saw it literally 18,000 times growing up, but barely remembered anything outside of the pommel horse scene before re-watching it the other night. Had Sylvester Stallone not saved the world from communism TWICE in 1985, I think this would have been remembered more as a Cold War-era action gem.

[jeffdacock 64]

I thought he looked like Mr. Blue from "Reservoir Dogs" myself.

Damn, you are right

[NikoEstevan 5]

Such a good episode...I was lucky enough to be there for it. You guys gotta start coming to these because there's always more than just the episode. When it was Howard the Duck we got to see a (very) rough cut of Comic-Con Air: the season premier of NTSF. This time we got to see Sarah Silverman run through her Roast of James Franco set and the trailer for June's movie Ass Backwards.

[DubipR 485]

My friend and I went to this taping and we laughed our asses off. Hearing it again, just made me love the podcast even more.

Jason was in top form just giving up and not giving a flying f**k about the film... killed me!

 

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Man, they gave Patrick Stewart a crazy wig for this one

Mel Brooks, for me.

 

Such a good episode...I was lucky enough to be there for it. You guys gotta start coming to these because there's always more than just the episode.

Sure thing, buy me an airplane ticket. No, wait, you can only go to Largo by pack mule, right?

 

...

 

I've seen this movie a bunch and watched just the first 40 minutes last night, but man, that opening credit sequence is so dramatic. It's just a steady shot of that bar and the music is super intense, you're like "holy shit, this is gonna get real, ah fuck, it's just a mullet head doing flips." I never realized before how hard the soundtrack is trying throughout the whole film.

[NikoEstevan 5]

"holy shit, this is gonna get real, ah fuck, it's just a mullet head doing flips."

 

*mullet-headed uni-browed dumb dumb

[wakefresh 689]

Such a good episode...I was lucky enough to be there for it. You guys gotta start coming to these because there's always more than just the episode. When it was Howard the Duck we got to see a (very) rough cut of Comic-Con Air: the season premier of NTSF. This time we got to see Sarah Silverman run through her Roast of James Franco set and the trailer for June's movie Ass Backwards.

 

Stop making me even more jealous!!!!

[wakefresh 689]

Mel Brooks, for me.

 

 

Sure thing, buy me an airplane ticket. No, wait, you can only go to Largo by pack mule, right?

 

...

 

I've seen this movie a bunch and watched just the first 40 minutes last night, but man, that opening credit sequence is so dramatic. It's just a steady shot of that bar and the music is super intense, you're like "holy shit, this is gonna get real, ah fuck, it's just a mullet head doing flips." I never realized before how hard the soundtrack is trying throughout the whole film.

 

The sound in this is very upfront -- from the footsteps to the huge, dramatic score.

[khthibault 25]

I always thought the king looked like Geraldo Rivera.

[fuckface 14]

Correction: Moscow olympics were 1980, not 85.