I recently had the chance to sit down with director Seth Gordon while he was promoting his holiday comedy Four Christmases, which is a decent enough film with a few laughs in it, most of them courtesy of Jon Favreau’s UFC fighter wannabe character and his redneck wife, excellently played by Katy Mixon. Growing up in Texas, it’s a great portrait of many holidays past.
However, I couldn’t stop myself from asking him aboutThe King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, and the controversy it’s stirred up. In my other article talking about that movie and Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, my point was that Ghosts was a much better film if you’re looking for a documentary about the arcades of yesteryear. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t entertained by The King of Kong –– on the contrary I find it very entertaining, and having met Steve Wiebe several times, he literally is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, just like in the film.
My main problem was the fact that Seth and his producer Ed Cunningham had seemed to play fast and loose with the facts when they edited their movie. Gordon doesn’t deny this, and he tantalizingly drops the fact that Billy Mitchell was actually much worse than they depicted in the movie. Does this mean that there needs to be a The King of Kong 2: Take This Hammer and Shove It sequel to set the record straight? I’d stand in line for that.
Like a video game screen that says “Continue?”, video game documentaries keep popping up with extra lives. Just last week I wrote about the documentary Chasing Ghosts and how it’s a better movie than The King of Kong, and the good news is that Chasing Ghosts is now coming out next month on a cable channel near you. The even better news is that there are a lot more in the pipeline, and a few others worth seeking out and watching. Besides these two retro gaming documentaries, here’s a roundup of new and recent video game films that’ll keep you pushing buttons. Check out the list after the break.
I feel a little bit like Professor Farnsworth from Futurama when I say this, but “Good news, everyone!” Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is coming to Showtime next month. Producer Michael Verrechia emailed me after I wrote the Chasing Ghosts vs. The King of Kong piece to tell me that it had generated a lot of responses. While I can’t claim that I made this deal happen, it’s great to know that people who have been hearing about this movie for almost two years will finally be able to see it. Set your DVRs to “retro” and be sure to watch this and let us know what you think.
Two films about old-school arcade games premiered within a few days of each other in Park City in 2007. One was at Sundance, the other was at Slamdance. Guess which one you’ve never heard of? Ironically, it’s the one from Sundance. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was the success story when these two films unintentionally butted heads, and the sad thing is that the other movie, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, is a much better film. But chances are you’ll never get to see it.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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