King of Kong: A fistful of quarters.

Posted on July 21st, 2008 by Jeremy.
Categories: Entertainment.

Last night I kicked Princess Hotcakes out of the house in hopes she would go home and get some of her school work done (she has only a couple weeks before she is able to be called “Master” and not just by me).

With her gone and me left trying to amuse myself I fired up my Roku (for those not in the know, that’s the device that streams movies straight from Netflix to my TV. Tis awesome), and surfed my endless stream of movies for something to kill the time between the twiddling of my thumbs and my meeting with the Sandman.

King of Kong: A fistful of quarters. I had heard about it from various Geek outlets over the past year and thought why not?

I hit play and started watching.

This is a documentary that in all honesty should NOT be as good as it is. It’s spectacular, one of the better docs I’ve seen in a long time, and I wager that the people putting it together had no clue that the story would unwind like it did.

Just a tidbit on what it’s about. The movie starts off with a little history on competitive video game playing. We are introduced to a cavalcade of characters including Billy Mitchell, a long time competitive gamer who is revered as a deity in the classic arcade game circles. Billy, with this unbelievable mullet, seems like a good enough guy…at first.

Enter Steve Weibe, an out of work Dad, who is looking for something that can give him a little bit of control in a very out of control moment in his life (laid off, father of two, etc). So, Steve plays Donkey Kong and beats what was supposed to be an unbeatable score, that is - the score of Billy Mitchell.

Suddenly this movie takes a turn. Billy Mitchell becomes this almost super villain like character, using his status as a video game king to steal any thunder that is rightfully supposed to be given to Steve. He has minions that constantly give Billy reports on Steve’s current scores, and we begin to see a very bizarre sub section of society that mirrors so many things that we’ve all gone through in life.

Bureaucracy, entitlement, ego out of control, and at the bottom of it all is our Rocky, Steve Weibe, who just wants to get what is owed him, that is, the recognition for the score that he’s put in on Donkey Kong.

I really can’t recommend the flick highly enough. The way that this story unravels took me by surprise. It’s for anyone, not just someone that might play video games, or has a penchant for the geekier side of life. It’s such a human story that you’ll find yourself smiling, cheering, mad, happy and going through a myriad of emotions along with the characters.

So do yourself a favor and forget the latest hollywood crud that spills over onto the video shelves. Pick this up, you’ll thank me that you did.

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