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March 10, 2008

A fistful of AWESOME


Over the weekend I had a tough decision to make. I was faced with a $27.99 price tag to own "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters." With Marcy's discount at Barnesama Noble, that brought it down a couple buck. But now having seen it, I would easily pay twice that to see this film, and embrace it.

People, go and seek this movie. Wrap your arms around it when you do; kiss the clerk for leading you to it. Drive the speed limit back home; to get in an accident and be put into the hospital, especially a hospital without a DVD player in your room to watch this masterpiece, only to find that the movie was destroyed in the wreck and it's sold out in the greater tri-state area - that, and only that, may be likened unto death.

Because, you see, I have a vision. I have a vision that one day Congress forestalls hearings on video game violence and its fabricated studies linking said violence to actual human behavior. My vision is that one day, video games (a misnomer in many cases) are cast in the same light as short films, where each is evaluated on individual merit and art.

This film is beautiful because it both elevates and destroys that vision. It tells a compelling, human drama about a nice guy who always seems to finish last no matter how much heart he puts into life. This guy gets the shaft just for being born; yet a narcissistic blowhard slides through life by sleazing around behind the scenes.

It also offers a stereotype-enforcing portrait of every nerdy guy above 30 who is just starting to adjust to life beyond his mother's basement (these being the background characters, not the aforementioned protagonist and antagonist.) To this end, my vision of video games as anything but children's toys is millenia away from reality.

You don't need to like or care about Donkey Kong to understand this movie. It is a story of triumph, of loss, and the gutter-dumped pain that life too often brings to the wrong people.


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