I’ll admit it – I often find documentaries boring. It’s not that I’m not intellectually curious, I always just found the realm of fiction to be much more interesting. This movie broke that rule. This is the story of Steve Wiebe, a man who sought to challenge long time record holder Billy Mitchell for the high score in Donkey Kong. What starts out as a simple “man overcomes odds” story morphs into a tale of outsider politics, and of the desire in all of us to be the best at something. While the film definitely takes Wiebe’s side, the director Seth Gordon ensures that we still sympathize with Mitchell. While his conduct is a bit unseemly, the obsession each man has in attaining (or in Mitchell’s case, holding onto) the record goes far beyond pride. Watching this movie will make you question your own motives in your life.
Another interesting layer of this movie is the age old question of life reflecting art. In the quest to defeat the other, both Wiebe and Mitchell elevate the challenge into a “good vs. evil” level battle. Each of their show downs will have you as much on the edge of your seat as you were for each of your battles against Ganondorf (yeah Zelda!)
A must watch for any video game fan, but don’t let this stop you even if you don’t like gaming – there is plenty of story and character here for anyone to enjoy.
Daily Movie Recommendation 
Love this movie.
Glad you’re back!
By: Elizabeth on October 9, 2008
at 1:10 pm
you think documentaries are boring?! you never told me!
By: caitlin on October 9, 2008
at 9:54 pm
Billy Mitchell is the ideal video game villain, nappy facial hair and everything
By: grasshopper on June 10, 2009
at 11:53 pm
As big of a film geek as I am, I too often find it difficult to watch many documentaries. King of Kong being a really happy exception. It really is a great documentary for people who don’t like documentaries. It’s almost disturbing how sucked in I got to the story and rooting for Wiebe.
By: Cory Capron on June 28, 2009
at 6:46 pm