Movie Review: The King of Kong

It has been a long time since I did a review and this one will probably be on the short side. That said, I watched a movie that many (all) of you have never heard of. The full title is The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It is a documentary that is like no other. Its appeal is limited in scope to me, the kid in Blockbuster who said it was great at the checkout line, and possibly Jeremy.

Given the small audience, I am suprised at how good this movie is. At the end, I was left wondering. If this movie is a fully true and real honest-to-goodness documentary, I am amazed at how "human" hard-core retro gamers are. If it was a spoof, I am fully impressed at the acting of the no-name characters. Given the fact that all the actors in the movie are portraying "himself", I have to believe this is real.

The movie tells the story of the fall of the high score record in Donkey Kong set in 1982 by some guy named Billy Mitchell. The movie portreys the subculture that still surrounds classic 80s era video games. It was amazing to see all those images of my past still in full swing in 2008. The haircuts, the t-shirts, and the 4-bit video was all spot-on.

If you want a trip down memory lane, watch this movie. If you are Jeremy's parents and/or wife and want to understand him and others like him, watch this movie. If you have a deep fascination with sociology or anthropology, watch this movie.