Review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) by Diederik K — 29 Jan 2011

There's some question over the facts presented in this movie, and it being a non-fiction film, that would seem to be a problem. But I didn't really care about that. This was an entertaining movie regardless of whether Steve Wiebe actually held the world record for an extended period of time, or whether Billy Mitchell was an actual dickhead or not.

I suppose that begs the question, "Why the hell fictionalize things in a documentary?", which itself leads to some other interesting questions. However, if one reads through the lines presented in the movie, then the real people here begin to have real hearts. The competition to see who is better at Donkey Kong may seem trivial and silly, but it's presented in such a way that makes it seem vastly important, and you end up really wanting to see the underdog Steve Wiebe win the title, even if he actually had it all along. Had the movie told the absolute truth, I doubt it'd be as compelling.

So, in the end, this is a quasi-true documentary about two people wanting to be the best at Donkey Kong.

And... I guess... This is the best movie about that subject that there could possibly be.