Friday, February 29, 2008

Review: The King of Kong is twisting with conflict and loaded with nerds

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Lindsey and I watched The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters on Wednesday, a hilariously funny “documentary” that follows Steve Wiebe as he attempts to overtake the world’s highest score in a game of Donkey Kong from reigning champion Billy Mitchell.

Not only is the movie entertaining, but it’s cleverly presented in “good vs. evil” fashion, boasts an awesome soundtrack, and features some very creative transition effects. Oh, and it stars lots of socially inept individuals who are fun to watch.

“That was really good — way better than I thought it would be,” said my wife, who immediately took her interest online to further research the story. “You couldn’t make this stuff up,” I replied, amazed by how humanized Wiebe appeared and how villainous Mitchell seemed.

In light of new information, however, it’s clear the film makers conveniently overlooked the factual time line of record holders while omitting a third contender from their movie. The director also construed some filmed occurrences, like removing select scenes of Mitchell with his wife and three kids.

Still, the movie is easily one of the best I’ve seen in the past 12 months — even if Billy Mitchell isn’t as sleazy as I imagined him to be, and despite the score keepers’ (Twin Galaxies) obvious conflict of interest. Four stars out of four. See it!

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2 Comments

  • cort says...
    February 29th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    I loved the documentary, and it even struck a chord with my wife who has hardly even touched a joystick.

    Here’s another interview from The Onion’s AV Club

    http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_king_of_kong_continued

    Seems like Mr. Mitchell is calling around and trying to spread some good PR.

  • jacob says...
    December 4th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    I noticed your review of “The King of Kong”. We are distributing a very similar gaming documentary, “E-Athletes”, which releases on DVD, January 27th, 2009.

    We would love to send you a screener for review.

    Would you be of interest? If so, what would be the best address to send you a copy?

    Thank you so much and look forward to hearing from you.

    Best,

    Jacob Ripley
    Public Relations Representative
    Passion River Films
    732-321-0711 x135
    Jacob@passionriver.com

    416 Main Street
    Metuchen, NJ 08840
    Discover unique films at: http://www.PassionRiver.com

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