Movie Review for King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The

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

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Tim Brayton of Antagony & Ecstasy (7/0)
            An operatic tragicomedy of rivalry, jealousy, failure, and success.

By Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
            This film's unsentimental salute to a straight shooter is what makes it hit the documentary bull'...

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            ...very entertaining...

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            A hilarious and moving study of the obsessive competition between the all-time scoring leader on ...

By Fred Topel of Can Magazine (7/0)
            The best inspirational sports movie since The Mighty Ducks. Now, I'm not saying it changes...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            ...a documentary that is beyond strange...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Scott Schueller of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            Gordon's documentary proves better than 90 percent of the manufactured stories out this summer.

By Scott Weinberg of Cinematical (7/0)
            I'm amazed at how a few filmmakers can take a story so slight and trivial, and turn it into a 90-...

By Karina Montgomery of Cinerina (7/0)
            Painful and interesting to watch, even with such clear black and white characters. See it if you...

By Rob Nelson of City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul (7/0)
            You don't have to be an '80s kid to see The King of Kong as a metaphor for life itself.

By Cole Smithey of ColeSmithey.com (7/0)
            Here's one of those unfolding documentaries where unforeseen events and deeds make the subject mo...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            The film magnificently, and almost inadvertently, captures the story of the American Dream.

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net (7/0)
            Up there with some of the greastest sports docs in that it truly allows the viewer to experience ...

By Brian Orndorf of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            One of the best pictures of the year...King of Kong is an uproarious, unsettlingly observant, and...

By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            A funny and madly arresting new documentary.

By Eugene Novikov of Film Blather (7/0)
            Play[s] a bit like a real-life version of a Christopher Guest mockumentary

By Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat (7/0)
            [Director] Gordon has made a most improbable film: a documentary -- about frigging Donkey Kong of...

By Chris Cabin of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            a fascinating film

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            About ethics and personal character as much as it is about the weird world of die-hard arcade gam...

By Richard James Havis of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            A clever structure by director Seth Gordon means that The King of Kong ends up more engrossing th...

By Adam Fendelman of HollywoodChicago.com (7/0)
            Seth Gordon's feature-length documentary about obsessive arcade gamers could possibly be the most...

By Bruce Westbrook of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            Nerds rule.

By Cindy White of IGN Movies (7/0)
            Like all great documentaries, this one transcends its subject matter, so that in the end, it's no...

By Beth Accomando of KPBS.org (7/0)
            The King of Kong is a cleverly made documentary that realizes you can start with something small ...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Luke Y. Thompson of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            It may seem overblown when one of the gamers calls Donkey Kong a metaphor for life, but The King ...

By Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            That there is a controversy (admittedly, one that's followed by, oh, 23 people) over who actually...

By Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            ...compulsively watchable...

By Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            A sprightly new documentary that's as compulsively watchable as the vintage video game it focuses...

By Pete Hammond of Maxim (7/0)
            A great American comedy. A hilarious and richly human tale of two guys trying to hang on to their...

By Matt Pais of Metromix.com (7/0)
            These two go after the record like they're Cal Ripken, and in the competitive community that surr...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Paul Kosidowski of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            The remarkable thing about The King of Kong is how its quixotic alternate universe quickly become...

By Colin Covert of Minneapolis Star Tribune (7/0)
            A stupendously entertaining nonfiction film concerning the cutthroat battle for world records on ...

By Ted Murphy of Murphy's Movie Reviews (7/0)
            Not unlike the sleeper hit LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, this breezy and engaging documentary has a great...

By Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News (7/0)
            Heartbreaking and hilarious...

By David Edelstein of New York Magazine (7/0)
            The King of Kong is very entertaining (and doesn’t overstay its welcome)...

By Kyle Smith of New York Post (7/0)
            Not since 300 have I seen such manly mano-a-manoing as the iron clash of wills in the documentary...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Matt Zoller Seitz of New York Times (7/0)
            ...succeeds as a portrait of a subculture...

By Matt Zoller Seitz of New York Times (7/0)
            The movie’s Rocky formula proves irresistible.

By Rumsey Taylor of Not Coming to a Theater Near You (7/0)
            [The subjects] may be a curious sort of renown, but by the end you are enraptured in their strugg...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Like some of the players it showcases, earns a nearly perfect score...funny, poignant, surprising...

By Keith Phipps of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            The film keeps up a dramatic pace but it never loses sight of the personal stories.

By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (7/0)
            A gripping yarn, an edge-of-your-seat thriller, as well as a mocking insider's view and a genuine...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
            Improbably compelling... it's every bit the rousing crowd-pleaser I wanted Rocky Balboa to be.

By Bill Gibron of PopMatters (4/3)
            The King of Kong is proof that you don't need Earth shattering events of cosmic import to create ...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (7/0)
            When a gamer tears up over a loss or a records auditor declares the significance of his role in t...

By Timothy Knight of Reel.com (7/0)
            An audience favorite on the film festival circuit, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a l...

By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            ...a fascinating portrait of polar opposites driven by different needs within a freakish world of...

By Jeffrey Chen of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
            Thankfully The King of Kong plays it straight and let's the players speak for themselves. In this...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            Who would have guessed that a documentary about gamers obsessed with scoring a world record at Do...

By Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com (7/0)
            A hilarious story about an unbelievable collection of arrested-teenage morons and, yes, an inspir...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            One of the smartest documentaries of the year, and easily the funniest.

By Peter Hartlaub of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            ...a pretty great trip down memory lane...

By Eric Melin of Scene-Stealers.com (7/0)
            This may take place in the insular world of men who spend too much time in front of dimly-lit vid...

By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            Seth Gordon's portrait of obsessive classic arcade game players finds high drama and murky intrig...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Jason Clark of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            The subtitle of the film is actually an unneeded addition since what the film highlights with pie...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            Documentaries can make you concerned for the environment or fascinated by penguins. And now, they...

By Stephen Garrett of Time Out New York (7/0)
            Presenting these lives as a parable about the merits of good sportsmanship is a stretch; when the...

By Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            The stranger-than-fiction cast of characters is fascinating, and their high-stakes machinations a...

By Brian Tallerico of UGO (7/0)
            Gordon finds a way to take these relatively normal guys and their simple quest to be the best at ...

By Ronnie Scheib of Variety (7/0)
            Hollywood may find it difficult to cast two big-name stars willing to play it as broadly as the r...

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Robert Wilonsky of Village Voice (7/0)
            [The King of Kong] would play like dark comedy were there not such honest-to-God cruelty at its c...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (3/4) No reference
             Kong has more humor, more drama and more humanity than all of the summer's top 10 movies combine...

By Peter Paras of E! Online (6/1) No reference
            ...funny and downright moving...

By Connie Ogle of Miami Herald (3/4) No reference
            It's almost embarrassing how compelling this film becomes...

By Mike Russell of Oregonian (6/1) No reference
            It's Over the Top via Nintendo, and it is stunning to behold.

By Steven Rea of Philadelphia Inquirer (6/1) No reference
            Thoroughly engaging, even as it explores the ugly underbelly of competitive gaming.

                         Reviews of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The
By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (6/1) Not Reachable
            The King of Kong is a twisty, wildly entertaining film, and this comes to you from a guy who care...

Movie Distributors
Picturehouse

Production Companies
Launch Pad

Movie Studios