Review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) by Jason A — 21 Feb 2011

I know I should get off my ass and be reviewing more bad B movies, but it's been pretty cold where I live and I've really only wanted to lay under the covers in bed and watch offbeat documentaries on my new Roku box/Netflix player, and this is one I just recently had been meaning to get to.

Absolutely one of the best and most entertaining documentaries I have seen in my life, 'King of Kong' ranks up there with 'American Movie' at the top of my documentaries list. Following the oft-heated rivalry between Billy Mitchell and Steve Weibe as they compete to hold the top score on classic arcade game 'Donkey Kong,' you will go from wondering why you'd ever want to watch guys play video games for 80 minutes to rooting for them.

The "characters" are just as colorful as any you'd find in a fictional movie, but are already delightfully over-the-top thanks to their quirks and obliviousness to them. I found out the filmmakers kind of skewed facts to make this more compelling and to tell a certain narrative, but you have to expect that in any documentary situation.

The director chose to create a protagonist and antagonist and tell a certain version of events "loosely based on reality" (in the director's words). Weibe is extremely easy to root for, as the every-man school-teacher trying to make good with his scores.

As for Billy Mitchell- you'd be hard-pressed to find a villain so colorful, cunning and manipulative outside of a comic book or Cannon films movie. All of this made for totally engrossing viewing.

They're making a film adaptation of this movie, and while I'm not sure it will be as entertaining as this was already, since subject matter like this when transferred to the silver screen with actors kind of screams bad Will Ferrell- Seth Rogan unfunny comedy vehicle a la 'Semi Pro' or 'Kickin' it Old Skool.

' Nonetheless, I will still be the first in line to buy a ticket to relive the rivalry of Steve Weibe and Billy Mitchell. There is no reason why you shouldn't bump this up to the top of your Netflix queu, or watch it on your Roku player.