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Film : Review by Todd Matthews
Going Ape - "King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters"
A story arc exists about two-thirds of the way through the feature documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters when you’ll want to punch something. Keep this in mind if you think you’re settling in to a nice, 90-minute, nostalgic trip down memory lane to the days of sweet-smelling, sticky-carpeted video game arcades filled with the beeps and buzzes of Pac Man, Dig Dug, Centipede, Galaga, and Donkey Kong. Sure, there’s plenty of that. But there’s more of this: King of Kong gets under your skin.
It’s the story of Steve Wiebe (pronounced Wee-Bee), a laid-off Boeing employee, now middle-school science teacher, who achieves what has long appeared to be the impossible: scoring 1,000,000 points playing Donkey Kong.
It’s an amazing feat, for sure. But it’s also rife with doubt, as so-called ‘Gamer of the Century’ and hot sauce mogul Billy Mitchell, who held the record for nearly two-decades, steps forward to question this Wiebe character, and put a chill through the retro-arcade community. When Mitchell pulls a shifty move that truly puts Wiebe’s record in jeopardy, that’s when blood pressures lift and fists clench for most moviegoers: suddenly, nothing in the world is more important than seeing this film end with justice for Wiebe.
The biggest misconception about King of Kong is that you must be a gamer or video game nut to fully enjoy it. If you were consistently picked last for any organized sporting event during your formative years (Hi, how are you doing?), or hatched an honest and heartfelt idea to achieve greatness only to spend more time counting the scraps of that idea after it blew up in your face (me again!), then your connection to Wiebe will be immediate.
King of Kong is such a great film for reasons that have nothing to do with Donkey Kong or video games. At its core, it’s just a funny—at times dramatic—story of good versus evil, nice guy versus jerk, and, of course, man versus ape.
The film opens Friday at the Grand Cinema (606 S. Fawcett Ave.). On Saturday, it will screen with Wiebe in attendance. During the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year, a packed house remained after the credits to hear Wiebe and the filmmakers describe the twists and turns of setting the video game record and making the film. Folks in Tacoma should do the same at the Grand this weekend.
Todd Matthews writes for the Tacoma Daily Index.
King of Kong preview on YouTube:
Link | Posted on 14. September 2007, 06:34
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This movie was a lot of fun today. Not only was the movie great, but getting to meet Steve Wiebe and his wife Nicole immediately after was pretty cool, too.
The lower lobby of the Grand was packed with people who wanted to ask him questions. He was incredibly warm and engaging in person as well as on screen.
I’d definitely recommend the movie!
1 | Posted by Erik Hanberg | Sep 15, 11:59 PM
I loved this movie too. I created some fan art to illistrate the battle between billy and steve at http://www.alexheaton.com/2007/09/king-of-kong-way-i-see-it.html.
2 | Posted by Alex Heaton | Sep 16, 03:22 PM
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