King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

It is a bummer that I already picked my top movies of 2007 because King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters definitely would have made it.

King of Kong is a documentary that follows recently laid off Steve Wiebe as he challenges the world record high score on Donkey Kong (held by video game legend Billy Mitchell). After the multi-talented Wiebe loses his job at Boeing, he takes time to re-evaluate his goals. He realizes that there has never been a point in his life where he was the best at something. That something, could be Donkey Kong. He buys an old arcade Donkey Kong machine and sets it up in his garage and practices relentlessly. He finally films himself beating the high score, only to have the officials at Twin Galaxies (the official video game score keeper) deny the score after examining the electronics of his machine.

We follow incident after incident of Steve being denied the ability to hold the title. Billy is an icon in the video game industry, and Steve is an outsider. Every possible route is exploited in order for Billy to keep his long-standing title. Hypocrisy runs rampant as Billy refuses to meet Steve in a head-to-head live Donkey Kong showdown. You start to wonder how invested they are in Billy due to how unwilling they are to de-thrown him.

The characters in this film are so perfect you would think they were casted for their parts. They were too perfect. You can't write this kind of persona. Each person in the movie has an extensively interesting background. This creates for an extremely suspenseful series of events as Steve gets closer and closer to his goal, and as we unravel the world that is the underground video game community. You will find yourself rooting for Steve to stick it to the man.

These people have such a passion for gaming you can't help but get into it. You start getting excited when the score begins pushing record country. You sweat in anticipation of the kill-screen (the point in Donkey Kong where the game runs out of memory and you get an instant game over).

Steve's humility, conviction, and passion are truly admirable. You will miss him when the screen goes black.

Not since Rocky have I been so satisfied with a classic underdog saga. This simple little story is made into an amazing adventure movie that will keep your attention for every moment of it's 79 minute run-time. This is one of the most incredible, hilarious, and engaging documentaries I've ever seen. A fantastic examination of man vs empire as well as the the decline of western civilization.


You should no doubt rent (if not buy) this movie. The DVD has some awesome extras too.

4.5/5 Stars