Ace of Spades HQ

September 07, 2011

"The King of Kong" Is On Right Now
— Ace

I've mentioned this before. It's the funnest little documentary ever -- The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, about the skullduggery and political machinations in the glamorous world of competitive classic arcade gaming.

Yes, it's a documentary about the Donkey Kong high-score world record, and the insider-cheating that goes on to deny the new high-scorer his actual place in the record book.

It's on Current TV now (yes, Gore's channel), but is mostly over. But it replays at 5am.

I know it's Al Gore's channel, but if you DVR it and fast-forward through commercials, you cost him money. Does that make sense? It does to me.

Seriously great movie. Everyone raves on it, and for once the critics aren't wrong.

Posted by: Ace at 06:12 PM | Comments (33)
Post contains 137 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Its a decent fun watch, but they definitely take some editorial license with things to increase the entertainment of it.

Posted by: buzzion at September 07, 2011 06:14 PM (GULKT)

2 Dude? Debate? Wrap up?

Posted by: MikeTheMoose at September 07, 2011 06:15 PM (GE1+K)

3 Donkey Kong ain't got sh*t on me!

Posted by: Denzel at September 07, 2011 06:17 PM (vNpDB)

4 I remember that.. It is (or at least was at one point) all on you tube in parts if you were so inclined..

The one guy had a sweet mullet

or whatever you called it..

Posted by: Dave C at September 07, 2011 06:17 PM (0c/Cv)

5 I recommend it also. It's quite interesting, and is full of very sad yet interesting people.

Posted by: cranky-d at September 07, 2011 06:17 PM (nRliU)

6 I need an editor.

Posted by: cranky-d at September 07, 2011 06:17 PM (nRliU)

7 another Netflix documentary I would recommend is Dear Zachary, one of the best I've seen, but be warned it is sad and infuriating

Posted by: Jose at September 07, 2011 06:20 PM (WTNJJ)

8 Ack. Ow. No kittehs?

Posted by: Ima Wurdibitsch at September 07, 2011 06:21 PM (otfJ1)

9 If we're recommending documentaries... Netflix has Exit Through The Gift Shop still I think. A movie about a crazy guy making a movie that he doesn't know he's actually the star of. Crazy.

Posted by: supercore23 at September 07, 2011 06:21 PM (ZUFNn)

10 Great documentary! I think I watched it on Hulu one time.

Posted by: Spiker at September 07, 2011 06:22 PM (4t9J5)

11 Okay I put a wrap-up at the end of the Romney Social Security thread.

Posted by: ace at September 07, 2011 06:23 PM (nj1bB)

12 Loved it- watched it streaming on Netflix though I doubt it is still there.

Posted by: Valiant at September 07, 2011 06:24 PM (aFxlY)

13 Another great documentary is...Inconvenient something...

Posted by: USS Diversity at September 07, 2011 06:24 PM (aD5Kx)

14 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

Posted by: steevy at September 07, 2011 06:24 PM (fyOgS)

15 I deleted Current TV from my channel lineup, enabled parental control to block it from being re-added and drank away any memory of what the parental code is.

Posted by: Johnny (John E.) at September 07, 2011 06:24 PM (nRTou)

16 Great movie about human nature.

Posted by: nightwitch at September 07, 2011 06:25 PM (11j7G)

17 That was a great movie. Another one made on a shoestring that I thought was excellent was Bigger, Stronger, Faster. Also available to stream on Netflix.

Posted by: Empire of Jeff at September 07, 2011 06:30 PM (U9jjw)

18 I've heard so many good things about this. I'm recording it.

Posted by: Robert at September 07, 2011 06:30 PM (4q6A5)

11 Okay I put a wrap-up at the end of the Romney Social Security thread.

yeah, it was all fun and games until someone poked an eye out.

Posted by: Racefan at September 07, 2011 06:32 PM (z8tC0)

yeah, it was all fun and games until someone poked an eye out.

Sorry.

Posted by: Will Folks at September 07, 2011 06:34 PM (3SvjA)

21 You can watch it on youtube.

http://tinyurl.com/3jcv28x

I think it's in 14 parts. It was released the same year as "an Inconvenient Truth" and though pretty much everything in al gores drama is wrong, it was very well made, and deserved the oscar, but it's absolute bullshit that The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters didn't get a nod.

It is probably one of the best documentaries about something that noone would ever think about, which is what _I_ think a docu should be about that I have seen.

Posted by: Douglas at September 07, 2011 06:36 PM (YKOnu)

22 I like that movie, but it made me aware that I could never compete with those guys. I've played the game recently and I would just get up to the difficult spring level that the movie had to explain. I played the game normally, while the short clips of their recordings show them goofing off. I don't think I could jump around like an idiot or exploit Donkey Kong's barrel throws while using the hammer. (I hate using the hammer in barrel stages! I swear Donkey Kong just goes nuts when you grab a hammer.)

Posted by: Anony at September 07, 2011 06:37 PM (Yigvc)

23 Besides Olbermann and the weekly airing of An Inconvenient Truth, Current actually has some pretty interesting programming.

Posted by: Oily Taitz at September 07, 2011 06:43 PM (TUax9)

24 we are good at making air filters,oil filters,fuel filters for constrcuction mamchinery,heavy vehicle,agricultural machinery,truck,car,ship and engineering machine etc.

Posted by: fdsfd at September 07, 2011 07:43 PM (k0JNn)

25 Billy Mitchell needs to be the new manager in 'The Office'..

Posted by: Dave C at September 07, 2011 07:52 PM (0c/Cv)

26 swagger..

Posted by: Dave C at September 07, 2011 07:58 PM (0c/Cv)

27 Yeah, absolutely outstanding documentary, and what starts out as a good guy vs. bad guy story ends up becoming a more nihilistic "everybody's a bad guy" kind of tale...

(spoilers)

...I mean, Billy Mitchell is obviously a complete douchebag (and still is, judging by recent interviews), but Steve Weibe starts out looking like some outsider kid who's picked on by the clique...but as the documentary progresses we begin to see a neglected family, including an "above-and-beyond-the-call" devoted wife whose patience rivals Job's (the bible guy). Ultimately, the documentary shines light on a bunch of sad little people trying to stake out their sad little places in the world and hold on to what little self-esteem they posses. Walter Day's pathetic life as "The Ref" and Brian Kuh's unbelievably self-loathing toadying are just depressing. Check out Twin Galaxy's website for an in-depth attempt to rebut what actually happened in the documentary, and you realize these guys really are like this.

Posted by: Sgt. York at September 07, 2011 08:15 PM (fhLYa)

28 I would second the recommendation of "Exit Through the Gift Shop"; watching a bunch of pretentious "underground artists" (OK, one guy was kinda cool and talented) get owned by a self-important rookie a-hole was one of the great cinematic joys of my life.

Posted by: Sgt. York at September 07, 2011 08:18 PM (fhLYa)

Yeah, what York said.

Funny movie but nary a likeable person in it.

Posted by: Hurricane at September 07, 2011 08:30 PM (NrdQS)

30 Yeah, i watched it about a year ago and it's a great little flick, fun to remember how big video games used to be when people had to go out to arcades to play them.

Posted by: booger at September 07, 2011 08:38 PM (9RFH1)

31 22 I like that movie, but it made me aware that I could never compete with those guys.

No shit, i never could play Donkey Kong, always sucked at it no matter how many quarters i wasted. Defender, Joust and Missile Command were more my speed.

Posted by: booger at September 07, 2011 08:43 PM (9RFH1)

32 I enthused: http://bitmaelstrom.blogspot.com/2007/10/kings-of-two-worlds.html That was one of my first blog reviews. It came out the same time (at least 'round here) as "In the Shadow of the Moon", so I saw, back-to-back, a documentary on the guys who landed on the moon and a documentary on guys who have devoted significant portions of their lives to playing 30 year old video games. (And "Kong" is a better documentary in a lot of ways!)

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