Movie Notes: King Of Kong
= 4 stars
Starring Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell, Walter Day
Directed by Seth Gordon
Synopsis
Tall, bearded, and dorky Billy Mitchell is the reigning video game champ. Suburban introvert Steve Wiebe plays Donkey Kong in his basement to where he may break Mitchell’s record to become the new King of Kong.
The Good
- Having spent much of my formative years in arcades, I definitely got caught up in the video game subject matter. I never got into Donkey Kong because it was too hard, so I have much respect for anyone who excels at it.
- Wiebe is painted as the underdog taking on the reigning champ Billy Mitchell, so the film follows a plot arc similar to Rocky.
- My favorite documentaries have that “truth is stranger than fiction” feel and this film has that aspect. Billy Mitchell runs a hot sauce company and sends in suspicious videos of his record breaking performances. Steve Wiebe is a suburban loser with a generic life, and finds solace in his strange hobby in the basement. The disappointment on his wife’s face is palpable, and even his kids are recorded telling their dad to stop playing Donkey Kong and help them in the bathroom. At its best moments, it’s funnier than the fictional Christopher Guest mockumentaries.
The Bad
- Some of the infographics are a bit too flashy.
- After totally enjoying this flick, I immediately went online and soon found a fair amount of skepticism and some outright anger disputing the accuracy of film — namely Mitchell is not such a jerk and Wiebe not the total wide-eyed ingenue. Read this post by Jason Scott (The King of Wrong), and the follow-up post. Essentially, the filmmakers may have gone out of their way to paint Wiebe as the “good guy” and Mitchell the “bad guy,” omitting information and exaggerating others for dramatic effect. That definitely makes for an entertaining movie, but a line may have been crossed as it being a documentary.
Conclusion
The flick is definitely worth a rental; I enjoyed it immensely. Just take the elements onscreen with a little grain of salt and realize some of the elements fictional or at least exaggerated to make a point. Is there room for a new genre: Semi-Fictional Mockumentary?
IMBD: King Of Kong
Wikipedia: King Of Kong
Rotten Tomatoes: King Of Kong
I really got a kick out of Billy Mitchell’s little stooges (esp. the one guy who had something like the #4 donkey kong score or something). I also found it amusing when different people at the east coast arcade would be introduced as “the #1 Mappy player” or the “all-time Defender champ”. It was pretty funny.
I also enjoyed seeing Billy Mitchell doing his scouting excursion to check out Wiebe (but not talk to him). Very funny stuff.
Yeah the extreme terminology for the video game niche was hilarious — such
as when the other Donkey Kong expert walked around the arcade announcing
Wiebe was approaching a “kill screen” and people should check it out. It
seems every niche has their expert qualifications that 99% of the population
could care less about. Oh, I also forgot to mention “Mr. Awesome” — what’s
up with that guy <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3gW_91bjkg>?
Oh? Is it that nice? Hmm.. I must consider of watching it too I guess. =D Thanks and cheers for the review.
Ah, Is the show nice?
Please more reviews before i rent it =)
[…] serious, and a nice change of pace from the more comical documentaries of […]
Billy Mitchell is the ideal video game villain, nappy facial hair and everything
Nice Post I already digged this