Reviews.

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters:

Video Game Doc Scores High in Spirit and, Seriously, Entertains

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Director: Seth Gordon

Starring: Steve Weibe, Billy Mitchell

Studio/Run Time: Picturehouse, 79 mins.

Director Seth Gordon spins cinematic gold from dorks and video games. His feature-directing debut is the documentary, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007), which follows the controversial battle of two video gamers in pursuit of the highest Donkey Kong score. (Trust that the film surpasses its premise.) Controversy in the world of competitive Donkey Kong gaming is surprisingly heartfelt and engaging. And I know how that sounds.

Twenty years ago, Donkey Kong was a popular arcade game. Today, it’s a primitive technological artifact dusting in dive bar corners and culled from antique stores by retro-chic yipsters. But for a small community of aging men, it is life.

One of those men is mulleted megalomaniac and villainous hot sauce heir Billy Mitchell. He’s held the highest international Donkey Kong score since 1982. He also refers to himself in the third person, compares his importance to the abortion issue, and wears truly hideous, albeit patriotic, neckties. He is a Donkey Kong legend. Well, until middle school teacher Scott Weibe comes along. Weibe is a wide-eyed family man from Washington who picked up Donkey Kong when he was laid off from an engineering job. And Weibe, it seems, could never catch a break. Cue his failure montage, courtesy of his closest friends and family: an underwhelming grunge band member, a foul pitcher, an unskilled basketball player. He lost his job the day he signed the papers on his house. Weibe’s an underdog if there’s ever been one. A battle between good and ego commences.

The film doesn’t hide its affinity toward Weibe, but it’s forgiven. Mitchell is an incredibly unlikable guy and he plays dirty. Weibe videotapes his record-breaking score, beats Mitchell’s previous feats, and becomes an overnight Seattle celebrity. Mitchell aims to undermine the success. Having ruled the Donkey Kong circuit for decades, he boasts a dozen devoted lackeys set on sabotaging Weibe. Sure enough, Weibe is accused of cheating and the official scorekeepers, Twin Galaxies (of which Mitchell is on the board), revoke his score. To reclaim his title, Weibe must fly to the worldwide headquarters for gaming record-breakers, ‘The Funspot,’ in rural New Hampshire. Twin Galaxies founder and umpire Walter Day dons full referee attire and keeps the gaming questionably honest (and sometimes plays guitar) while Mitchell’s fans struggle to stay loyal. Here, the real drama ensues: Does the good guy win? Not if Mitchell can help it.

This documentary tells one hell of a story. It gives docs like Spellbound and Murderball a run for it. King of Kong isn’t so much about Donkey Kong (although I did learn what a kill-screen is), as it is about Billy Mitchell and Scott Weibe. It’s an often hilarious story of American competition and its antics. It highlights the longing for recognition, no matter how small the scale. And while it is largely pathetic, it is incredibly poignant. The film is denser than it promises, and not just because Leonard Cohen and The Cure spot its soundtrack. The Weibe family’s affectionate support is moving and the moral consequences of ‘fame’ are compelling. At its core, the film unearths the underlying sadness of the arcade: a dying museum of simple machines and the balding men who love them. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is the kill-screen of documentary filmmaking and that, you should know, is as good as it gets. (595)

 

Iron Man 2 (assigned):

Even RDJ Banter Can’t Save this Superhero Sequel

Iron Man 2

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson

Studio/Run Time: Marvel Studios, 124 min.

The question should not be whether Iron Man 2 (2010) is any good. It is not. Instead, what ought to be determined is just how bad the sequel to the film adaptation of Stan Lee’s Iron Man comic book can be. Salvaged by a brief bit of humor and a subtle allegory to life off-screen, the movie falls somewhere between bad and horrible, but it isn’t quite the worst.

Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2 is a bonafide summer blockbuster. With an estimated budget of $200 million, it stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, and a dash of Samuel L. Jackson. The story is nothing new: A fallible superhero with unresolved father issues must save the world from impending doom. Insert special effects by way of attack robots, taser chains, and large-scale explosions. Combine, stir, and shake well. The problems of Iron Man 2 abound, but its well-worn approach to mass-marketed filmmaking is impossible to contest.

While the plot echoes comic book remakes of the past, the tone of the film is markedly different. Written by Justin Theroux and directed by Jon Favreau, Iron Man 2 contrasts darker films like Sin City (2005) and The Watchmen (2009), and strives for laughs instead. Lead Robert Downey Jr., continuing as Iron Man alias Tony Stark, is the wittiest—and perhaps most irritating—superhero to date. Stark is the billionaire heir to world-security conglomerate Stark Industries, who secretly suffers from a worsening health condition that jeopardizes his Iron Man morphing capabilities. Stark is a man of one-liners, incessant philandering, and undiagnosed ADD. Downey plays the part effectively.

As in many of his other films, Downey is occasionally funny and usually exhausting. In rare moments, his humor is apt. In an early scene, he says, “To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you’re in.” But Downey’s character is sheer and it’s hard not to look. His portrayal of Tony Stark, the narcissistic, vain and entitled heir, seems natural and suspect. And in one curiously long drunken scene, Downey is belligerent, spinning records, and performing plate-shooting party tricks in his Iron Man suit. Unfortunate parallels are drawn.

Iron Man’s entourage is less than riveting. Gwyneth Paltrow supports as Eyore-esque Pepper Pots, Downey’s secretary-cum-boss and love interest. Pots is part school marm, part archetypal Debbie Downer and the banter between Downey and Paltrow quickly tires, as does their romantic credibility. An awkward Don Cheadle plays Downey’s sidekick, Lieutenant James Rhodes. Director Jon Favreau continues as Iron Man’s underwhelming go-to-guy. Both Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson, don tight body suits and an eye patch respectively, and best serve to propel the possibility of yet another Iron Man in the works.

Mickey Rourke, as villainous Russian terrorist Ivan Vanko, should bolster the film’s lackluster acting, but his unfortunate accent renders him impossibly ridiculous. Despite his excessive tattoos, burly presence and affinity for toothpicks, Rourke is more parody than public enemy. Vanko’s benefactor and cohort is Justin Hammer, played by Sam Rockwell. In his ill attempt at a humorless and less sarcastic Spaedian foe, Rockwell bores.

The world of Iron Man 2 is occasionally comic, yes, but hardly mere fiction. At its strongest, the summer blockbuster of 2010 is a subtle allegorical review of our times. Iron Man, half machine, half man has ‘successfully privatized world peace.’ He recounts his great feats, which include pacifying North Korea and Iran, at a TED-like weapons conference. The U.S. government attempts to seize Iron Man’s suit via a humorous senate hearing on grounds that the suit compromises national security. Meanwhile, the US purchases weaponry from private elite benefactors like Hammer. Tony Stark is the popular powerhouse celebrity who has an aversion to people ‘handing him things,’ a cliff-side Malibu home, and a tabloid-worthy persona. Stark is more child than man and his secretary and lieutenant best friend do more to run his massive company than he does. Mickey Rourke is the terrorist threat to the international peace the west (read: Stark) commands. And Bill O’Reilly lectures from a television about Stark’s incompetence. The world of Iron Man is obsessed with weaponry, technology, globalization and success. Intentions aside, the irony intrigues.

If you are expecting a significant sequel à la Spiderman 2, look elsewhere. Iron Man 2 is a movie to watch on a plane, or in five-minute increments when your regularly scheduled program breaks for commercial. I wouldn’t exactly pay to see it. The movie serves its purpose as a multi-million dollar franchising opportunity, but it hardly contributes to the world of film. Featuring five Oscar-nominated actors (Paltrow, Rourke, Cheadle, Downey, and Jackson), this is not only discerning, it’s unacceptable. The special effects rarely move beyond the wireless glove mouse of Minority Report (2002) origin, the explosions are monotonous, and the one-liners are sloppy. If the previews haven’t already divulged, this film barely caches its profit-turning motive. Iron Man 2 is a film that best belongs in its self-ascribed world where money, weapons, cheap entertainment, and easy jokes trump. And if that world is also ours, is Iron Man 2 standard of our entertainment? Now there’s a question well worth considering. (871)