DVD Review - King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Director Seth Gordon has crafted a fascinating and heart wrenching film in The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. On the surface, it's a film about two nerds trying to one-up each other to be the highest scorer in Donkey Kong. However, it manages to be about much more than that.

Billy Mitchell (who, in my opinion, is the definition of the word "tool") is a conniving, dishonest, and slimy jerk who also happens to be a major hypocrite. His main opponent in his battle to remain as important as he was in the '80s is Steve Wiebe, who began his quest to break the world record in Donkey Kong because he had been laid off and it was something to do.

In Wiebe, we have one of the most compelling heroes in modern cinema. There are several hints throughout the film that he has some form of high-functioning autism or obsessive compulsive disorder, and truly, in everything he does he feels he must be the best. Watching him slam out an amazing solo on his 5 year old son's tiny drum set, or shoot a perfect nothing-but-net three pointer from about 50 feet away drive this point home. This is a man who must excel at everything he does.

However, Steve's plans to be the best hit a roadblock in the form of Twin Galaxies, an international video game score keeping organization that seems to have an agenda. That agenda is to keep Billy Mitchell relevant by foiling Wiebe at every turn. His video taped score is deemed inadmissible, so Steve travels cross country at least twice to beat Mitchell's score in person, only to never actually face Mitchell the coward in person. Mitchell even submits a video tape of himself beating Wiebe's high score, even though throughout the movie he continuously says important scores must be beaten in person.

I had been interested in seeing this movie ever since I saw the previews for it when they first came out. What I didn't expect was to get so emotionally involved with these characters. If someone had explained the plot to me and I'd never seen footage, I would have thought it was just have been another cheesy faux-inspirational movie in the vein of The Wizard. However, I found this documentary far more compelling and inspiring than anything Hollywood has produced in years.
Grade: 10
(All films are graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being cinematic perfection and 1 being a movie about an inter-city dance crew.)