Review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) by Mike S — 20 Jan 2010

My favorite documentary along with Crumb. Never have I been so enthralled and interested in the outcome of any documentary then this one. It is a perfectly made masterpiece and a true testament to what documentaries should be, plain and simple.

And it is about arcade gaming. The movie starts out talking about the legend of Billy Mitchell, the greatest competive gamer of all time and a man with an almost Genghis Kahn like philosphy on how to be a winner.

He has the all-time record on Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. He has a group of friends to reinforce his ego and faun over him, not that he lacks confidence(not at all).We hate him immediatly. Then we meet Steve Wiebe, a family man who was always second best at everything, whether it's baseball or music.

He seems to be a man who is hard working and passionate, not to mention a stand-up guy, who simply cannot win and it breaks our hearts. We then learn that Wiebe has taken away Billy's Donkey Kong score and has finally one, although it is not that simple.

The group that handles world records Twin Galaxies( in which Billy is a referee) find out that Wiebe used a smart board that was given to him by Roy "Mr. Awesome" Shildt (one of the funniest charactars in the film), a person who is the Benedict Arnold of Twin Galaxies.

His score is immediatly nullified and Steve must go to New Hampshire to compete in the Funspot tournament and reclaim his title and challange Billy Mitchell. From there it takes us into a world of competitive gaming and the gamers, who although we may scoff at them for such a weird hobby, posess a strange type of genius and almost Zen like philosphy when it comes to how they play.

But more importantly, it becomes an intense, white knuckle sports film as we await the confrontation of Wiebe Vs. Mitchell. It plays out like the best type of Rocky film and the best type of fanasty film, with the clash of these two titans being as epic as anything contested on a basketball court or football field.

It is also the ultimate battle in cinematic terms: Billy is the ultimate villian, an asshole who has other people do his dirty work and talks a lot of shit while never backing it up and Steve is the ultimate good guy, an underdog we want to come out on top and who represents the little guy who is short on confidence, yet high in drive and willpower.

This film is amazing, entertaining, and flat-out phenomenal. Simply put, if you don't want to see this movie because the premises sound stupid, you are not my friend.