 Synopsis:
The King Of Kong takes you
into a nerd world you never knew existed.
The King Of Kong opens with a history of arcade
games from the 80s, including Donkey Kong, Pac
Man and Centipede. Skillsets of current
video game players are rated as novice by video
game experts, stating that the hand-eye
coordination that was necessary to achieve
"greatness" in these games was far more
demanding of the player.
 Billy
Mitchell (shown in the picture on the right) is
known as the best video game player of all time,
having legitimate records in nearly all of the
arcade classics and is the reigning champion of
Donkey Kong. Billy oozes with
condescension in every word he speaks and truly
does seem to get off on this godlike power that
geeks have given him. Billy, though
moderately absent from video game competition,
still pokes his head into the "sport" when
something arises his attention. In this
case, his interest has been peaked by a
legitimate challenger to his Donkey Kong record,
Steve Wiebe.
Steve is an everyday
guy...an everyday guy that has a Donkey Kong
machine in his garage and spends his life
attempting to get the record. Steve is as
normal a person you'll find in this video game
world. Steve sets a world record in Donkey
Kong on the machine in his garage, but is
instantly under scrutiny from video game record
referees (yes, I said that) and players alike.
The quest for Steve is to prove he has what it
takes to hold the record in a public setting, in
front of a crowd.
The Freak's
Rating: A : Documentaries
are one type of entertainment that doesn't fit
the bill for some people. Some will watch
with intention of educating themselves on issues
they may not be informed of. Some will
disregard documentaries because they want to
escape reality when they sit down with a rental.
The King Of Kong doesn't expect to change your
life, only let you in on a side of life you've
most likely never seen.
As long as I can remember, I
have loved playing video games. When I was
8 years old, I overheard my Grandma at a family
dinner discussing redoing her will and without
skipping a beat asked her if I could have her
Atari 2600. At 11, I begged and eventually
received an Atari 5200. From 12 - 14 I
pretended to be friends with kids just to go to
their house to press up, up, down, down, left,
right, left, right, B, A, B, A, Start on the
original Nintendo to get my 30 guys to play
Contra. At 18, I got by on Ramen and Mac &
Cheese for a few months, using the money
my mother gave me for food to buy a Playstation.
At 21, I stood in line for nearly 7 hours just
to get a Playstation 2 the minute it came out
(12:01 am). Then I called in sick for a
few days to play it! A year and a half ago
I found a secret online preorder for the
Playstation 3 and purchased it immediately,
buying two and selling one on Ebay to pay for
mine. Looking at that history you might
say I have a problem. Believe me, I do
NOT.
The King Of Kong was
cheated, if you ask me, out of an Academy Award
nomination for best documentary. This is a
nicely paced film that keeps you entertained.
It does feel a little like Best In Show, feeling
almost too cheesy to be real at times.
Mitchell is a fantastic villain in this movie
and watching Wiebe attempt to dethrone him is
great fun.
Eric's Rating: B+ : Really good at
letting you in on another world. It was funny and made you cheer for the
underdog. Interesting what people make their goals in life. Totally recommend.
Brian's Rating: B : Arcade games were my life. I spent hours each
day at an arcade. I often had to invent excuses that I was doing something
else. I would bike 8 miles to an arcade where I could get 10 tokens for a buck
to play "2nd run" games. I have mastered many games, however Donkey Kong was
not one of them. I could never get past the third board. The people in this
film are crazy good. I think that they must be mentally imbalanced. It made me
think, "I could do that", quickly followed by a thought of, "Wait... do I even
want to?". I remember reading the slashdot when Billy Miller posted the
perfect Pac-Man game, and while I respected that greatly, I thought, Are you
kidding me? It must take a special form of OCD in order to even want to do
that. This film brings that aspect out. It is almost incredible that there is
a group of people, even lawyers, who seriously have a life ambition of breaking
the world record for Joust. And Billy Miller is an pompous ass. I did not
know that before, but I know that now. Fortunately, the movie brings people
like me hope. The hero of the story appears to actually be normal....well, as
normal as an OCD Donkey Kong addict can be. This one was a personal
recommendation for me. MMF probably does not realize that the highest I grade I
will likely ever give a documentary is a B. So this gets a B.
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