[Trailer] The King of Kong

[Hispanicgamer]

The King of Kong. I always loved playing Donkey Kong back in the 80's and DK Jr. Good times.

[Teggy]

Back in the early days of G4, they used to have Billy Mitchell on a lot. However, he never came off half as obnoxious as he does in that trailer.

(one thing he revealed which I thought was kind of cool is that there are certain spots on certain boards on Pac-Man where you can park Pac-Man for 1/2 hour or more without getting eaten - that's how is able to go to the bathroom during his record breaking runs )

[PR_GMR]

The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters.

Great tagline! I'll be on the lookout for this one.

[Moliere]

No matter what I say it draws controversy. Sort of like the abortion issue.

[Kraken]

That looks awesome.

[khomotso]

"The Best Classic Video Game Player of Our Era." Future generations of classic video game players have a long shadow cast over them.

[lildrgn]

The only reason I know about this movie is because a friend of mine mentioned something about Steve, the challenger. Turns out that Steve and I went to the same high school. He played drums (as evidenced in the trailer) in the jazz band, IIRC, and wasn't seen as a loser (as portrayed in the trailer).

Pretty interesting, and here's hoping Billy gets knocked down a peg or two!

[wonderpug]

Is this the only thread there's been about this movie? Couldn't turn up any others with this hamster powered search engine.

Anyways, finally got around to seeing this last night, and boy howdy was it a fun ride. It's hard to believe it's non-fiction, you could hardly write a better good vs. evil story if you could try...the "bad guy" even had henchmen!

Very glad I got to see this in the theaters, and I'm recommending it to all my friends: gamer or non-gamer alike.

[McNutt]

I added it to my Netflix queue after Ebert & Roeper gave it glowing reviews. The guy sitting in for Ebert said he had seen the movie seven times.

[lildrgn]

I saw it this weekend and enjoyed it as well. Some of the hardcore video gamers are the kind of guys that give the rest of us bad names.

Pretty dang entertaining, though.

[Captain Caveman]

Saw this yesterday. What a great, great movie. The only way it could have been better is if it included more Mr. Awesome.

Seriously, go see it. It rules.

[rrmorton]

This is out on DVD now and I watched it last night. Wow, what a riot. Amazing cast of characters.

The highlight of the movie for me is when Steve is driving to the Guiness World Records challenge and his young daughter (about 6 years old) sits next to him in the back seat.

She says, "I didn't realize the Guiness book was such a big deal."

He replies, "Yeah. A lot of people read that book."

Then she says, "Some people ruin their lives just to get in it."

So awesome.

[YellowKing]

Unfortunately you have to take the movie with a large pinch of salt. Apparently it was skewed to make Billy Mitchell much more of an asshole/villain than he actually was in real life, and I think some of the chronology was incorrect.

[rrmorton]

Well, taking some liberty with reality is gonna happen in any documentary, but there's plenty of stuff Billy says or does in the movie that they clearly didn't fake. Maybe he's not so much of an EVIL VILLAIN but he's obviously a giant, cheesy tool.

[McNutt]

Billy is a true Jedi.

Great movie. It's the best documentary I've seen since American Movie.

[Captain Caveman]

It's the best documentary I've seen since American Movie.

IT'S ALRIGHT, IT'S OKAY. THERE'S SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR. JESUS TOLD ME SO!

[YellowKing]

Yeah, didn't mean to take away from the awesomeness of the movie. Even if it is a bit skewed for dramatic effect, it's easily the best documentary I've seen in years. I don't think you could invent a character as interesting as Billy Mitchell.

[Captain Caveman]

I don't think you could invent a character as interesting as Mr. Awesome.

Mortonized.

[rrmorton]

I want you to remember... that no punk bastard ever got a gnarly piece of poontang by being sensitive and considerate.

[Moliere]

I want you to remember... that no punk bastard ever got a gnarly piece of poontang by being sensitive and considerate.

I love the hesitation after this question:

So what you're saying is that some of the people that contacted you were men

who he subsequently admitted photographing while they gave him a bj.

[Tony]

Can you blame the women (and men) for falling all over this guy? He's the world champion at Missile Command. What human being could resist that title?

[Freezer-TPF-]

Can you blame the women (and men) for falling all over this guy? He's the world champion at Missile Command. What human being could resist that title?

Chicks dig the uniform.

[rrmorton]

The saga continues ...

Billy Mitchell interviewed at the Onion AV Club.

[tjg_marantz]

Saw it last night. That was a fun ride indeed Poor kids though, hehe. It's almost unbelievable that this is NOT a mockumentary. I mean really, they are all charicatures of themselves or something. Fascinating.

Recomended for sure.

[Kraken]

OK, I just moved this up from 150-something to #2 on my Netflix list.

[B Dog]

Just watched this tonight. Very enjoyable. I also agree with CC that there wasn't enough Mr. Awesome.

How come no one mentioned that Steve Wiebe was Tyler Hansbrough's long lost identical brother?

[Hispanicgamer]

I'm still in shock about Mr. Awesome!

[naednek]

Just watched this via netflix/xbox360, holy shit, what a bunch of losers, especially the Billy dude. It certainly was interesting, but depressing at the same time

[Smoove_B]

RISE! RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!

Through the magic of streaming Netflix, I just finished. I am speechless. I enjoyed this almost as much as that LARP documentary someone mentioned here last year. I'll have to check out that Onion writeup as well as Billy Mitchell really came off like a big wanker in the movie.

[Isgrimnur]

Or you could have watched it on G4, as it started there 2 hours ago. And will be running again in 9 hours to end right before the E3 coverage kicks off, where Steve Weibe will be attempting to set a new record.

[nasai]

Go Steve!

[Smoove_B]

Or you could have watched it on G4, as it started there 2 hours ago. And will be running again in 9 hours to end right before the E3 coverage kicks off, where Steve Weibe will be attempting to set a new record.

If only there was some way for you to post some type of advanced message in a relevant topic some time prior to the airing of movies and shows.

[Isgrimnur]

I may remember a lot of useless crap, but remembering a six-month old thread for a movie that I have not seen that I didn't even make the connection to until I saw your thread revival is well beyond my abilities.

[ska5fe]

Through the magic of streaming Netflix, I just finished. I am speechless. I enjoyed this almost as much as that LARP documentary someone mentioned here last year. I'll have to check out that Onion writeup as well as Billy Mitchell really came off like a big wanker in the movie.

The LARP movie you mentioned is called 'Darkon', and it is also a wonderful documentary, in the same vain as 'King of Kong'.

[Freezer-TPF-]

Arise again!

I finally saw this last night. It started a little slow, but then it got very interesting as things unraveled. (I realize that certain events were omitted or manipulated--I expect that with just about any documentary narrative.) I'd call it a must-watch for anyone who grew up during the early 80's arcade era.

If I ever get laid off, I'm going for all the BurgerTime glory.

I'll have to check whether Netflix has "Darkon" for streaming.

[Smoove_B]

I'll have to check whether Netflix has "Darkon" for streaming.

It's coming next week (9/15 I believe).

[Freezer-TPF-]

Cool, gracias.

[hitbyambulance]

has anyone seen "Chasing Ghosts"?

[Smoove_B]

I have not - but it seems to be highly rated on Netflix. Unfortunately it's not available through them, which kind of stinks. I've added it to my list in hopes they recognize demand.

[Isgrimnur]

Give it to Wiebe!

Video game scorekeepers Twin Galaxies International announced that teacher/movie star/gospel musician Seve Wiebe has reclaimed the Donkey Kong record he last held in 2007 (which King of Kong rival Billy Mitchell snatched after a few months) by reaching a top score of 1,064,500 in Nintendo's classic arcade game.