King of Kong: Nice, Normal Guy Overcomes Elitist Nerds

Saw this movie tonight (King of Kong) — broke my 1-star movie streak.

I got a real soft spot in my heart for stories about reasonably successful guys who struggle to defeat the powers of crappiness. I enjoyed seeing video game nerds act as clannish and unpleasant as (or moreso than) anyone — makes sense. But mostly I liked the way that this guy who, as far as actual fact goes, has a pretty decent life gets portrayed as an underdog against a bunch of people who seem like they’re struggling to find any sort of relevance in the real world. Seriously. That rawked. It’s like when the US beats Mexico at soccer: our country doesn’t even care about this sport and yet we’re still better than you at it. And the bad guy is as perfect a bad guy as you can imagine.

Of course, the entire story could be a lie. May well have just been edited to make it seem like the West Coast Rocky was defeating the Amassed Forces of Satan. But whatever — struck a chord with me. So did all the unsubtle reminders from the Protag’s kids that this doesn’t really matter and that he’s kind of being an idiot for caring about setting a Donkey Kong record.

Wasn’t the most ambitious movie of all time and it was probably 15 minutes too long, but I liked it way better than any Martin Scorcese movie. Scorsese. Whatever.

bkd