Thursday, May 14, 2009

King Of Kong

It's been a while since I've seen a good documentary or one that doesn't depress my socks off.

King of Kong is just great.

In a nutshell:

There is this whole subculture of mega-nerds out there that only play vintage atari games. There is a whole society that keeps track of high scores. There are heros and legends in this little subculture just as there are in any sporting event.

The heros in the video game world are just as you would expect them to be.

These are real life Napoleon and Kip Dynamites.

I haven't the energy for a full on review, but I will say that during the first 30 minutes of this documentary I thought I had found the Holy Grail of documentaries.

However, nothing yet has toppled the greatness of When Were Kings. And nothing ever will.

King of Kong is filled with little twists and turns and just brimming with hilariously odd characters and obsessions that keep you glued. It is also a heart felt documentary and mostly chronicles the journey of an out of work engineer and his attempt at toppling the world record for Donkey Kong. Normal OCD man with wife and kids meets the Empire of the single middle aged men with acne and mullets.

Worth every penny.

4 comments:

Vitamin Z said...

Totally agree. Great movie. Stranger than fiction for sure.

z

The Magills (Matt and Megan) said...

bro - meg and I watched this a few weeks back - loved it.
Also - check out Who in the (*&^) is Jackson Pollack?
It was incredible!
see you in the morning at 9 am!
mpm

Becky said...

I love documentaries. Keep your recommendations coming!

grasshopper said...

I am so jealous of Steve Wiebe ... I would love to get paid 10k for all the time i've spent practicing video games