Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
Picturehouse Entertainment

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The reviews


9.3

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 37 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Four Christmases

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for a brief sexual reference

Starring Billy Mitchell, Steve Wiebe, Walter Day, Todd Rogers, Steve Sanders, and Doris Self

A middle-school science teacher and a hot sauce mogul vie for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong. (Picturehouse Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
DIRECTED BY:	Seth Gordon
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 29, 2008 Theatrical: August 17, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	79 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

It's all true--every magical, exhilarating, infuriating, dumbfounding, jaw-dropping second of Gordon's miniature masterpiece.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A funny and madly arresting new documentary.

100

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

It’s not just one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen, it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Period.

100

Chicago Tribune Scott Schueller

Gordon's documentary proves better than 90 percent of the manufactured stories out this summer. One can breathe a sigh of relief that it was done right and not cobbled into another bad fictional comedy.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Gordon's feature directorial debut mostly stops being about video-game obsession and turns into a film about what it takes to make it in America.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

This film about fierce competition among classic video-game players is a comic action epic in documentary form. It captures fear -- and heroism -- in a handful of dusty video games.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Very entertaining (and doesn’t overstay its welcome) but it’s a little depressing to contemplate.

Premiere Eric Alt

If you don't play at all, you may find yourself enjoying this film more than anyone, because you'll at least get all the laughs with none of the cringing self-recognition.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Like "Air Guitar Nation," the stranger-than-fiction cast of characters is fascinating, and their high-stakes machinations are nothing short of mind-boggling.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Heartbreaking and hilarious.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

A portrait of two different men whose compulsion for Donkey Kong is hilarious.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

One of this year's funniest movies -- and its most inspirational sports drama -- is a documentary.

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

The movie’s “Rocky” formula proves irresistible anyway; unsurprisingly, New Line has commissioned Mr. Gordon to remake this story with actors.

LA Weekly Luke Y. Thompson

It may seem overblown when one of the gamers calls Donkey Kong a metaphor for life, but The King of Kong is just that -- a reminder of how we all have to prove ourselves to others, and the extent to which the odds are often stacked against outsiders and newcomers.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Ultimately Gordon's movie becomes both a hilarious story about an unbelievable collection of arrested-teenage morons and, yes, an inspiring fable of persistence and redemption. I haven't mentioned this movie's fabulous addition to the English language yet, so here it is: the verb "to chumpatize."

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Obsession creates its own fascination, and never more so than in King of Kong, a sprightly new documentary that's as compulsively watchable as the vintage video game it focuses on is addictive.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Pure, goofy fun.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Not since "300" have I seen such manly mano-a-mano-ing as the iron clash of wills in the docu mentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A documentary that is beyond strange, follows two arch-enemies in their grim, long-term rivalry, which involves way more time than any human lifetime should devote to Donkey Kong.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Who would have guessed that a documentary about gamers obsessed with scoring a world record at Donkey Kong would not only be roaringly funny but serve as a metaphor for the decline of Western civilization?

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

As impressive as it is geeky. Most of the principal characters look like they haven't seen daylight since "Pac-Man Fever" was on the charts.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

A nuanced study in obsession, dedication, manipulation, ethics and how the all-American need to be the best at something -- anything -- can shape a life.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

It's a depressing little kingdom, even when Gordon tries desperately to goose the drama with the requisite "Eye of the Tiger" riffs and some junior high-level palace intrigue.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 37 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alec E. gave it a7:
well made documentary. you really feel yourself rooting for the under dog. shows how serious even the most absurd interests are to those unfortunately involved.

Jumper M. gave it a10:
A fine movie! Who thought documentaries could be so good? Complete with champions, villains and nerds. Very nicely done.

Chris S. gave it a9:
Wonderful movie if you have any (and I mean any) interest in the subject. If I can thoroughly enjoy this movie on a cruise ship, on a crappy 14" TV, while the boat rocks harshly from a nearby storm, it has to be darn good.

Alex K. gave it a10:
Extremely compelling! Billy Mitchell is an excellent villain, a cowardly, arrogant jerk with horrible fashion sense.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Amazing movie. Not as funny as I thought it was going to be but very nicely done. It was just so frustrating.

Chad S. gave it a9:
Seen together as a collective, the guys from Stacy Peralta's "Dogtown and Z-Boys" and Seth Gordon's "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters", are like the two outsider cliques in Judd Apatow's "Freaks and Geeks". Freaks win, hands down; at least their labour of love led to fame and fortune, while the geeks will just have to make do with this absolutely mesmerizing doc about being a beautiful loser(the film uses Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows"; the Canadian singer/songwriter wrote a novel called "Beautiful Losers"). Hot-sauce impresario Billy Mitchell(or what I like to call him, evil Kenny Loggins) is the sort of guy who relates with the evil sensei from "The Karate Kid", you know, the guy who tells his pupil to "sweep the leg", Danny's leg, Ralph Macchio's leg, at the climactic karate tournament(the movie uses the immortal "You're the Best" to spectacular effect). Why nice-guy Steve Wiebe feels the need to measure up to this megalomaniac is beyond comprehension. Even worse is Wiebe's need for validation by the corrupt people who run Twin Galaxies, a monolithic organization with a rulebook that's fluid just like the NCAA's(these jackasses stripped the University of Hawaii's men's volleyball of its title in 2002). When official Walter Day mispronounces Wie-be's name like a monosyllabic cognomen, we get the old coot's gyst; this gamer from the Northwest is a "dweeb". You really feel for Steve's wife, "the first-lady of Donkey Kong", who is the ultimate armchair quarterback's wife. If Steve ever buys a Frogger coin-op, she should file for divorce. "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" does for the eighties what "Dogtown and the Z-Boys" did for the seventies, the soundtrack and cultural signifiers from both films make you want to relive the decade of your childhood. "You're the best!/around!/nothing's ever gonna keep you down...

Dan (nirv) gave it an8:
This is a very good movie. I call it a movie and not a documentary because as you'll find on the official Twin Galaxies forums, a lot of important facts are left out in the movie to dramatize it. It may or may not be intentional, but any documentary should not leave out important facts to make the story more interesting than it really is.

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The Picturehouse Entertainment

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
Picturehouse Entertainment