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

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 83 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.3 out of 10
based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 37 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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 

What The Critics Said

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.
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100
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A funny and madly arresting new documentary.
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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.
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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.
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91
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.
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91
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.
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90
New York Magazine David Edelstein
Very entertaining (and doesn’t overstay its welcome) but it’s a little depressing to contemplate.
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88
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.
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88
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.
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88
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Heartbreaking and hilarious.
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88
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A portrait of two different men whose compulsion for Donkey Kong is hilarious.
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83
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
One of this year's funniest movies -- and its most inspirational sports drama -- is a documentary.
Read Full Review
80
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.
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80
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.
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80
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."
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80
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.
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78
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Pure, goofy fun.
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75
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.
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75
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.
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75
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?
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75
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.
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75
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.
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40
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.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!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.

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