The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters ::  2007 movie review

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is about the world record high score for the highly popular in the 80’s arcade game Donkey Kong  and who really is the champ. The game as those of us who have played it gets progressively hard as you move up levels to the point of utter insanity. This is the story of Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell , Steve is trying to get this record that has been unbeaten for over 20 years. There is a bunch of other people associated with Twin Galaxies, an organization formed to keep track of high scores achieved on arcade games in the United States and they are interview, which adds to the story and its complexities. This documentary film has all the elements of a real movie, meaning a hero, villain, conflict and resolution which are rare in a documentary and kind of surprising. The way the story is well done and laid out in a way that draws you in with character development. This is the way it should be and there are some funny moments as well as the kind of awkward conversations that are humorous. The story plays out over the course of a year or so as   Steve travels back to the east coast to try to set the record at a famous location where they have all of these classic video arcade games. I really felt this movie overcame some huge obstacles and the logistical nightmare as some of the people are a no show at the big head to head video game showdown. This movie could have sucked so badly, and it didn’t it was well edited and has just enough effects and music to carry it along. The characters due in a weird way play out as a classic confrontation of guy good vs. bad guy and this is not what I expected and is very interesting. This is a piece of unexpected commentary on Americana and who would of thought that two grown up men and their obsession with a twenty year old video game record would have been so engaging.  This drama between these men could have been written better by a group a Hollywood writers, it’s really a great true story. So if your in the mood for a great  documentary film I would recommend seeing The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters