Quote of the day:
“Where have all the cowboys gone?”
--Paula Cole
I was sure “The King of Kong” was going to be about nerd obsession. It turns out this is just a piece of it. And not the most interesting piece.
This is a documentary about the people vying to be the world-record holder in Donkey Kong. Remember Donkey Kong? It was a long time ago. Along with Pac-Man and a few others, it was one of the most-popular video games in the 80s.
Though Donkey Kong is quite crude by today’s game standards, it still is among the most popular games.
The primary contenders here are not youngsters. The youngest looked to be about 35, and the others are past 40. A woman vying for the title in another game was in her 70s. While they all occasionally seemed to be having fun, they really take this stuff seriously.
The last time I remember playing Donkey Kong I lasted about a minute. To approach the scores of these people requires playing 2 1/2 hours. On one quarter.
That’s obsession. Obsession. Obsession. Obsession.
My eyes get blurry just thinking of staring at a game for that long.
Having said all this, “The King of Kong” is not really about “Kong.” It’s about “who is king?” The politics, manipulation and subterfuge caught me off guard--and really got me involved with these characters.
It’s a very interesting and surprisingly intriguing film. I highly recommend renting it.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The King of Kong
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1 comment:
I ended up going to see this last summer and the Ken Theatre(somewhat apprehensively) mostly as an escape from the miserably hot weather, but the reviews from Ebert and Roeper were so good and there was nothing at all in the major movie theatres that tempted me I took a chance on it. Very enjoyable and engaging. Who would have guessed? There's also the classic good guy (Wiebe) vs. bad guy (Mitchell) theme and you keep rooting for Wiebe. Definitely recommended.
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