The King of Kong
I had high hopes for this film and it did not disappoint! Although I don't see relatively too many new releases, I think it's still a lot to say that I consider this one of the most enjoyable movies to come out in the last couple years. And I think it's my favorite documentary to come out since Grizzly Man in 2005 and I've seen a couple others that are also really great.
Supposedly the filmmaker is now going to be making a dramatized version of this story in a new film. I've very skeptical about how that will play out, at least I wonder how well it will play with anyone who has already seen the actual documentary. How can you find someone to play Billy better than the real Billy? The filmmakers claim they have a lot worse footage of Billy they didn't show because it wasn’t really relevant and they didn't want to make him seem any worse. Are they going to dramatize that kind of thing in the movie? Why not show the real footage! I don't know. The best thing about this movie is that it's real. OK, of course we know with any documentary (especially one with such a traditional little guy vs. the big guy story line like this one) that there is a lot of selective editing to fit the real story into a narrative the filmmakers think will work to pull at your emotions. But knowing this is pretty much real is what really gets you involved!
And there are so many interesting secondary characters that come in and out of the movie besides Billy and Steve who are compelling enough on their own to make several movies. Walter Day, Robert Mruczek, Steve Sanders, Brian Kuh, Mark Alpiger, Doris Self, Mike Thompson, and of course Roy "Mr. Awsome" Shildt who should have his own movie! The special features have lots of additional footage of these fascinating people. As well as some people who had only a very little amount of time in the film or none at all. Check out Bryan Wagner discussing Burger Time strategy in a hilarious scene with his little crony sitting next to him repeating what he says. It's so geeky it's great. And then on the special features you will also discover one of the most interesting people who never made it into the film. Joel Hedge, the Xybots champion must have his own movie! Is it out there already! Someone must make it.
Basically there are infinite interesting aspects of this film. The filmmakers were actually filming several different potential story lines in the world of this classic video game competitions and you can see a few of them creep in as their stories come into contact with this one.
I took so much joy in watching all of the special features on this DVD. And there are plenty of them! But I just can't get enough. Now that I think about it, I would totally eat up a dramatization of this movie just to see more of it, in any way I could! Bring it on!
Rating: 10/10