DVD Review: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
DVD: “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”
Released: January 29, 2008
Runtime: 90 minutes
Rated: PG-13 for a brief sexual reference
Buy it: Amazon.com
You wouldn’t think a documentary about video gamers would be all that exciting, but “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” directed by Seth Gordon, rocks it out of the arcade. My 12-year-old son and I saw this movie at the Traverse City Film Festival last year, and we both loved it! One of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen, and especially fun to see it with a film festival audience.
Billy Mitchell (pictured) is a 30-something guy who still blow-dries his shoulder-length hair every day, if that tells you anything. He set the Donkey Kong world record in the 80’s, and no one has ever come close to beating it until Steve Weibe came along a few years ago.
Steve is a family guy from Seattle, who set up a Donkey Kong game in his garage. He decided he could beat Billy’s record, so he spent nights in his garage practicing and figuring out strategies.
Then Steve goes to FunSpot - the big place for vintage arcade games like Frogger, Donkey Kong, etc, and proceeds to beat Billy’s record. Only Billy - who now runs a hot-sauce business in Florida - hears about it through his inside people and sends in a video tape of him beating Steve’s score.
More after the jump, including a video clip!
The people who keep track of scores - Twin Galaxies - want to keep Billy happy, because he’s a good connection for them to have. So they accept the video tape, which negates Steve’s IN-PERSON high score. At this point, everyone in the audience at the film festival is, like, what the heck?! Steve makes the high score in person at the video arcade and they accept a VIDEO TAPE over his score?!!! Just not right. Plus the video tape is questionable, because it’s crackly and poor quality - especially in the area over the score! But Billy won’t show up in person, because he’s a big chicken - bawk! bawk!
At this point, the audience is pulling for Steve, a straight-up guy who just wants to be tops in one thing in his life. And the film ends on a high note.
It’s a very funny and poignant film about the weird, wild, geeky world of arcade gaming with lots of Dwight-Shrute-like characters. I highly recommend it! Fun to see lots of tween and teen kids in the audience, too.
Here’s a clip:
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Clips & Movie Trailers, Comedy, DVD Talk, Documentary, Drama, Family, Film Festivals, Film Genres, Film Industry, Film Reviews, Independent, Now on DVD, Posters & Production Stills
0 opinions for DVD Review: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: