Sunday, May 11, 2014

Gymkata (1985) and the Popularity of Non-Actors



The film industry has deep roots in popular culture.  Whether it be the current trend of movies based on the nostalgia that people have for the products they grew up with, or the use of popular musical artists for scores, movies are always trying to capitalize on trends and popular things.  One of the oddest ideas that filmmakers have ever come up with to capitalize on pop culture is when they build a film around a non-actor because that person is currently part of the zeitgeist.  We’ve seen it happen with Paris Hilton.  We’ve seen it tried with Eminem.  In the 1980s, we even got a movie starring gymnast Kurt Thomas.  If society in general is following the lives of these people, Hollywood will want to do the same.

I am sure that many of you know about Paris Hilton’s rise to fame.  She has always been a rich socialite due to her family’s hotel chain.  It has allowed her to be somewhat known for her whole life.  But she was never really a popular figure until the release of her sex tape.  From there, her career exploded.  Paris Hilton became a reality star.  She and her friend Nicole Richie headlined the show The Simple Life, where they would do things that lower class people would do.  Basically, they were both Beth Behrs’s character from 2 Broke Girls.  Paris Hilton also managed to have a few films written for her to star in, two of which (The Hottie and the Nottie, and Pledge This) got recognized as two of the worst movies ever.  Both have spots on the IMDb Bottom 100 within the top twenty.  Ever since her film and television career fell apart due to these movies and performances, Paris Hilton has faded from the limelight.  I bet she doesn’t think “that’s hot.”

My second example rose to prominence with the beginning of the new millennium.  A new rap superstar named Marshall Mathers, known professionally as Eminem, was making a name for himself.  He came out of Detroit, was filled with anger, was writing respected lyrics, and was white.  Of course this would cause some movie makers to get excited.  In 2002, Eminem would be starring in a movie called 8 Mile.  He was playing a character that was basically himself.  8 Mile was about a down-and-out white kid in Detroit being empowered by rap.  Sure, there was a lot more to it, but that’s the short of it.  It’s pretty much the story of Eminem as people know it.  The movie was fairly well received and it earned Eminem an Academy Award for Best Original Song.  He has not been the star of a film since, instead choosing to focus on his music career rather than breaking into film in a huge way.  He’s probably the most successful of the non-actors having a movie built around them because of their popularity.  He’s definitely the most successful of the ones I will be writing about.

In a similar vein to Eminem are Vanilla Ice and Mariah Carey.  In the early 90s, Vanilla Ice was one of the most popular musicians in America.  Ice Ice Baby was all over the place.  At the peak of his popularity, a film called Cool as Ice was commissioned.  Vanilla Ice played a biker that saved some people from the seedy underground of a city.  It was released after his popularity had subsided and did not do too well.  Mariah Carey’s movie did even worse and is infamous as one of the worst movies ever made.  Glitter came out in 2001 and starred Carey as an up-and-coming musician dealing with relationships and commercialization.  It led to a dark spot in Carey’s career that it would take years to recover from.

Moving on from musicians, we get to a man named Kurt Thomas.  He was the first American male gymnast to win a gold medal in floor routine at a world championship.  Much like when Gabby Douglas won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, people loved Kurt’s victory.  Unlike Gabby Douglas, people’s love for Thomas got him a starring role in a movie.  That movie was Gymkata.  It told the tale of an American going to the foreign country of Parmistan to compete in a deadly game.  As a form of defense in the game, he learns gymkata, which is a mixture of gymnastics and karate.  The movie was a massive flop when it was released in 1985.  In recent years, Gymkata has gained a huge cult following.  It was released on home video.  Podcasts inspired by MST3K have covered it.  People are more aware of it now that they ever were before.  But using Kurt Thomas as a star did not work in the 1980s and he never got another starring role.

Kurt Thomas isn’t the only athlete who has had a movie built around him.  I haven’t seen Space Jam in a long time, but there is no denying that it was cashing in on the fame of Michael Jordan.  At the time that the movie was made, Jordan had left basketball for baseball.  That was written into the movie.  Space Jam was about Bugs Bunny and his buddies getting Jordan to play basketball again in order to get rid of some aliens.  People love that movie now.  I think a lot if it has to do with nostalgia.

There are many more instances of non-actors getting movies to star in (Steve Irwin in Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, Gina Carano in Haywire) based on their popularity outside of narrative film work.  But I think you get what I’m saying by this point.  People who make movies like to exploit the popularity of people who aren’t movie stars.  Models, athletes, and musicians all get used based on their cultural saturation.  Gymkata didn’t open my eyes to this idea.  It sure made me think about it, though.  And it’s an interesting trend to think about.
There are a few notes that I’m going to throw in here before this post is over:

  • Kurt Thomas was nominated for Worst New Star at the 1986 Golden Raspberry Awards.
  • I brought up the movie Glitter, which I covered in a previous post of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
  • I wrote about the IMDb Bottom 100 in my post for Crossover.
  • Gymkata is the first movie in the Sunday “Bad” Movies to have been suggested by two people.  Both @Mimekiller and @Movie_Doc said I should watch it, so I did.  Thanks guys.
  • If you have any suggestions for future bad movies to watch, suggest away.  I read the comments (if they ever show up) and I check the Twitter account if you message me there.

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