Even though I like documentaries, I hadn’t heard of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and had no interest in seeing it… until I found out it was playing at our new favorite movie theater, The Balboa. So my wife and I checked out its rating on Rotten Tomatoes and decided to give it a shot.
In the beginning, we just laughed at the video game geeks talking about how important having the highest score in Pac-Man or Donkey Kong is. By the end of the movie, though, I was anxious to see who would win this contest—Billy Mitchell, the defending champion, or Steve Wiebe, the challenger. I love it when films suck me in like that. I can definitely say I had very little interest in Donkey Kong before this. The most I’d ever felt about classic games was a bit of nostalgia for a little “wizard needs food badly” from Gauntlet.
Ahh. Donkey Kong. Brings back some memories. I used to play with a hand-held Donkey Kong game a long time ago. Remember that it had something to do with a small monkey and a big monkey…
If you liked that one, try this one:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390632/ [WordWars]
Same idea, but for Scrabble. It really sucks you in.
Oh, I’ve seen Word Wars already. I found it amusing, but I didn’t really get sucked in.
I just saw this last week and loved it. If you google a bit, you’ll find that the situation gets even crazier. Also, there’s talks of a Hollywood version.
Yeah, I read that Billy Mitchell broke the record again in July.
I loved this documentary! I was very skeptical when my nerd-tastic husband suggested we watch it but I was drawn in by the characters and the competition. I have recommended it to several friends.