Stuff I've seen lately -- Rhinotainment

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Date Posted: 05:30:14 02/19/08 Tue
Author: Dog of War
Subject: Stuff I've seen lately

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
A documentary about competitive videogamers, specifically two men: Billy Mitchell, the long-time record holder in Donkey Kong and a videogaming icon, and Steve Wiebe, a high school science teacher who took up the game while he was temporarily out of work, and proved good enough to challenge Mitchell's record.

I've read that the filmmakers disliked Mitchell so much that they edited the film to deliberately make him out to be a villain, but after reading some interviews and seeing video of his appearances, one thing becomes pretty clear: this guy is a raging egomaniac. If the makers of this film deliberately made him look bad, they certainly didn't have to try too hard.

Wiebe, by comparison, is such a likable and sympathetic guy that even if you didn't hate Mitchell (and I guarantee you, if you see this film you will hate Mitchell), you'd still end up rooting for him. He's a guy who seems incredibly talented, a naturally gifted athlete and musician, but just never seemed to catch a break until he installed a Donkey Kong machine in his garage (a move not terribly appreciated by his wife) and became the first person to not only beat Mitchell's high score, but break 1,000,000 points.

Over the course of the film we see Wiebe's efforts to gain credit for his achievement, and the lengths that Mitchell and Twin Galaxies, the official videogame record keepers (and an organization run by diehard Mitchell disciples) go to prevent his record from being recognized. The film builds to a climax as Wiebe and his family travel from Washington state to Florida, and Mitchell's hometown, for a head to head meeting and entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the recognized best player in the world. I won't give it away, but Wiebe's young daughter has the best line of the film in response to her father's explanation about why getting into the Guinness Book of World Records is so important.

The Ten
This comedy got some pretty dreadful reviews, and for the life of me I can't understand why. Hardly the best film I've ever seen, but I found it pretty funny. It seems that there is a pretty distinct line between people who like the comedy of David Wain (one of the people behind the sketch comedy show The State, the standup trio Stella and films like Wet Hot American Summer) and people who absolutely loathe or simply don't get it. I think his stuff is pretty fun, and he assembles a fairly diverse cast of State/Stella stalwarts and newcomers to the ensemble to tell 10 short pieces about the ten commandments.

With comedies my review always comes down to a simple bottom line: if I laughed, it's a good movie. And I laughed quite a bit at this film. It's often quite stupid, but no less funny for it, and plus it has Winona Ryder violently humping a ventriliquist's dummy and Gretchen Mol as a hot librarian losing her virginity to Jesus. So you've got that, too.

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Replies:

In regards to The Ten -- The Rhino, 13:10:58 02/25/08 Mon