Review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) by Bassbait T — 21 Sep 2010

This movie is great because it's effective. I've never gone into a movie with such a careless attitude and came out with such an involved attitude. This movie can take someone who doesn't care about world records, games, or anything for that matter, and suddenly make it their whole world. That's why this film is so great. Sure, there are documentaries like The Cove that tell of the tragedy of today's life, but then there are documentaries that make the most mundane aspects of life seem tragic. This is that one. Billy Mitchell has been transformed into some kind of Satan through this film. It's not the best movie as a documentary, but as a story, it's the best.

But it's best to put a geek film into geek words. So here I go:

This film is the entire original Star Wars trilogy in one movie. The first part of the movie is Wiebe (Skywalker) trying to deal a major blow to Twin Galaxies (the empire). The next part of the movie is when the empire strikes back. The end of the movie is The Return of the Wiebe. It's basically a tale of a man trying to take down THE man, winning, then being beaten down by the man, and then gathering himself together to try to take the man down again. It's tragic in that you feel so much empathy for Steve, and start to really hate the Twin Galaxies people. You start to point out that they are dorks, but you don't really say the same for Wiebe, because, after all, he has a family.

Sure, it's a dorky film, but anybody who likes video games, movies, good stories, documentaries, world records, and so forth, this film is perfect for you. It's a dive into the nerd culture that can somehow splash just about everybody who sees it.