Review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) by Nicole M — 28 Nov 2010

What happens when you get an egomaniacal jack-ass as the self-proclaimed "greatest gamer of the century"? You get Billy Mitchell, the long-seen ambassador of video game competition from the year I was born, until the present day. Billy monopolized both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. international high scores, as well as the perfect Pac-Man score, and has since been riding on his coat-tails of success ever since. Kinda reminds me of the jack-ass from A Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.

Enter Steve Wiebe. A recently laid-off super genius with enough time on his hands to dedicate his life to Billy Mitchell usurper. And with that, the movie begins.

Seth Gordon makes a docu-drama so cunning, so biased, you'd swear it was staged. The whole time, Steve Wiebe is protrayed as the underdog, the man with no respect, the "Rocky" of video games, while Billy is protrayed as the jack-ass I previously stated. Without telling too much of the story, all of Billy's scenes are edited from past interviews, while Steve's story is told more from a documentary perspective. All in all, the movie forces you to cheer for Steve, and hate on Billy.

So the story of two men chasing video game glory is more than just a pursuit of legendary status. It's about honour, sacrifice and integrity. What Seth Gordon has done is prove that Billy never had any. He's just a man, with a bloated ego, and a band of loser runner-up friends (the guy with the 2nd highest score on Donkey Kong actually went to Steve's garage, tore into his arcade machine and claimed to find "conspiratory evidence" of cheating the high score). Yeah, right.

Up until the end, you will feel jaded toward this movie for having forced its view on you. Until one scene at a bar. When the cameraman asks Steve Sanders, Billy's own best friend, for his take on Steve, he heaped praise on the man for his integrity, honour and good sportsmanship. The camera pans to Billy and he says "Oh I wouldn't know, I never met him." Right THERE, Billy gives Sanders the coldest fucking look this side of the Ural Mountains. Like his best friend can't say nice things about another guy. Like he had been betrayed. What an ASSSS. That one scene left no doubt in my mind the accuracy of the once-thought stilted bias of this movie: Steve Wiebe the good guy, Billy Mitchell the jerk.

But hey, sorry for spoiling that one scene! It was too important not to bring up. Overall, its an engaging docu-drama. It's a story more about fair play and integrity, than it is about video games. A definite recommend.