Movies You Should See (But Probably Haven't): The King of Kong

Horrible Bosses is a surprise hit in most people's books. But not nearly as big of a surprise that it comes from documentary director Seth Gordon. He did have one prior studio film in Four Christmases, but that itself is a documentary on how Vince Vaughan somehow finds work.

Anyway, Gordon's first feature was the doc The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It is about the video game Donkey Kong and the quest to reach the highest score. Sounds thrilling, right?

I can honestly say this is the best documentary ever. This doesn't expose any crazy government cover-up, or explains the amazing miracle of penguin life, or anything like that. It takes seemingly normal people attempting to do something that is, quite frankly, pretty boring, and it molds them into a truly remarkable masterpiece. These real-life characters are more interesting than anyone Christopher Guest could dream up, and there is more emotion over this stupid game than in even the best written Hollywood dramas.

So let's meet the competitors. On one side is child prodigy Billy Mitchell. He believes that if you aren't first, then you are last. The cocky, hot sauce entrepreneur was one of the very first video game champions, holding records to all the classic arcade games. Among his accolades was being the first person ever to achieve a perfect score in Pac-Man.

How do you get a perfect score in Pac-Man you ask? You eat every dot on the screen except for one and the four power-pellets. Then you eat the power-pellets one by one, eating all four ghosts every time in between. Then you eat the final dot, as well as all the fruit that popped up. Repeat that for all 255 levels until the game glitches out.

Namco declaring him the greatest gamer of the 20th century.

He was also the current Donkey Kong champ, the most complex of the classic arcade games. He is worshiped as a God by all his fellow gamers, some of who have dedicated their entire lives to recording video game high scores. He ate all that attention up, and lived the life of a God.

On the other side of the country is Steve Wiebe. He is your classic everyman who has always thought he deserved better. He gets laid off from work, again, and he can't get motivated, until he sees a TV special about the Donkey Kong record. He says "Hmm, I was good at that game back in the day", and without any fanfare at all, he breaks Billy's unbreakable record. This throws the competitive gaming world into madness, as they refuse to accept his score. And it leads to a one-on-one throw down between the Gaming God and the blue-collared family man.

Or does it? Billy almost seems scared to face him. I won't spoil it for you.

Not to sound cliched, but this is about more than just a game. But the supporting characters are far from cliched. There's Walter Day, the man behind all the video game records, whose entire wardrobe consist of referee uniforms.  Ladies man and professional "pick-up artist" Roy Shildt has hated Billy Mitchell and his spiteful banter since he was a child, and will do anything to get his revenge. Brian Kuh was busted for cheating, by Billy nonetheless, but took his "pwnage" with pride, and made a successful law career off of Billy's wisdom. And of course, there's Doris Self, a flight attendant trailblazer turned 80-year-old Q-Bert champ. You couldn't make these people up.

Everyone in this, as well as the entire scenario, is just so unreal, and that makes it even more believable somehow. This film is all around funny and captivating, due mainly to it being so...normal, in all our abnormal lives.

Word is they are making a non-documentary film version of this, again directed by Gordon. While I don't doubt his talent, he could never create something like this, no matter how funny Kevin Spacey was. So get out there and see the real version of King of Kong now. You don't need to be a gamer to enjoy it. As long as there was something meaningless in your past that meant everything to you, you will find yourself in this.

Movies You Should See (But Probably Haven't): Leon the Professional

First off, 100 followers! This blog is so popular, it broke Blogger! So sorry about that, but thanks for your support.

Now on to today's movie you should see, but possibly haven't. Leon the Professional isn't too obscure of a flick, and I'm sure every big movie fan has seen it. But it boggles my mind this hasn't reached the mainstream appeal this deserves.

This is the story about Leon. He is a Professional. He's a mob hitman who does his job and retreats to the solidarity of his rundown apartment. He can't speak English very well, his only friend is a plant (does Hot Fuzz make a bit more sense now), and all he does when he's not killing is watch old movies and drink milk.

He lives next door to a little girl named Matilda -- played by a 12-year-old Natalie Portman in her first ever role -- who often picks up milk for Leon. Her family has been stealing drugs, and are soon brutally murdered by the dealers. After narrowly avoiding the massacre, Mathilda seeks help from Leon to train her how to kill, so she can avenge her family. So all action from there, right.

Actually, this film is able to combined genres seamlessly, so expect a lot of drama and character development from this point on. Sure, there is a shootout for the ages at the end, but without knowing who these characters are, there just would not be any emotion at all.

The characters here are some of the greatest to ever grace the screen, and something which really helps build them are the dramatic intros each person has. When you first see Leon (played by the great French action star Jean Reno, who has really been able to break the typecast and has become a very versatile actor since this) you actually don't see him. He cleans up a mafia stronghold so quickly, you can only catch glimpse of him. You can see the glint of his sunglasses or the woosh of his jacket as he flies by, but the opening scene is all about what you can't see. It just shows how good he is at his job.

Then there is Mathilda, sitting at the top of her apartment staircase. You can hear her father yelling in the background, and the camera slowly pans around here revealing several bruises and the cigarette she is holding. She begins as a very troubled and hopeless youth, but she visibly grows stronger as the film progresses. Writer/director Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, the Fifth Element) actually wanted a slightly older actress, but Portman channeled her black swan and blew him away at auditions.

Then there is her family's murderer Stan, played by none other than Gary Oldman. In my Top Ten Actors Who Should Play Osama Bin Laden list, I mention Oldman is the greatest on-screen villain of all time, and this role is his tour de force. He plays the worst kind of drug dealer: the one who is also a cop. Like Leon, you don't actually see him at first. He spends his entire first scene with his back to the camera. But when you do see him, he is laughing, snorting coke, and having a great time killing. Leon doesn't like killing people, it's only his job. But Stan enjoys it. Some critics said Oldman overacted too much, but this must have been their first Oldman movie. It's not even in his overacting top ten.    

Finally, there's Danny Aiello who plays a mafia bookie. You may remember him from... what's that movie called... oh yeah, every mafia movie ever, as the bookie.

This movie may be sandwiched between two amazing action scenes, but it is all about meeting and growing with the characters in between then. You will grow to cheer for Leon, to hate Stan, and to understand the relationship Mathilda and Leon share. Yeah, the movie got into a little trouble because it almost kinda somewhat implied that Mathilda and Leon perhaps maybe possibly have sex. Although, if you pay attention, she sees Leon more as a father than anything else.

There are two great moments at the end which I'll do by best to practically spoil for you. The final shootout ends with a bang, in my opinion the greatest moment ever in an action movie. You'll see. And you know this had a good director when the ending makes you cry manly tears...over a plant.

Go see this if you haven't. If you have, see it again. It's in my top ten favorite movies.            

Movies You Should See (But Probably Haven't): Cemetery Man

Take the unsettling weirdness of David Lynch, the black humor of the Coen Brothers, the surrealist nature of Dario Argento, some slapstick and grossness of Sam Rami, and add in a touch of Groundhog Day, and you have Cemetery Man.

This 1994 Italian horror movie (original name Dellamorte Dellamore, literally Of Death, Of Love) is amazing, beautiful, and just plain weird.

This is semi-based on the paranormal comic book Dylan Dog, with the screenplay by the same writer. The main character Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is an alter-ego of Dylan Dog, and not actually him. Although, there are a ton a similarities, nonetheless the appearance of the main characters (the original drawings of Dylan Dog are actually modeled after Everett). A new, allegedly horrible, Dylan Dog movie was just released in the states, so this may interest you if you saw that. Of course, nobody saw it, as it opened at #16 at the box office.

Anyway, Dellamorte is a depressing hopeless romantic who works at a cemetery alongside his fat and mentally handicapped sidekick Gnaghi. Recently, the dead have been coming back to life, seven days after they are buried. Dellamorte can't tell anyone, because he'll be out of the only job he is good at. So he kills the zombies routinely every night.

He eventually falls in love with a grieving widow. They have a great relationship, but then she dies, and it is over. Or is it? As others have found out, this cemetery gives people a second chance at love.

This film's greatest strength is how beautiful it is. So much attention goes into every shot, and there are plenty of unique and foreboding camera angles. This is easily some of the best cinematography I've ever seen, and I've seen Children of Men.

The story changes speed on a whim. One minute, he is killing Boy Scout zombies, and the next he is pondering existence.


One thing I always appreciate in a movie is when you can view it different ways and get something different out of it. Not counting the ending, you can watch this as a pure zombie movie, or you can interpret it as an allegory of life and death. Both are here, and much more. It is an unbelievably deep film, without being over pretentious. And no matter how you view it, the ending will confuse you regardless. It is as ambiguous as you get.

Everett (best known for the Shreks and My Best Friend's Wedding. What?) is great as the lead. He can dispatch zombies without even thinking, which is good because whenever he starts thinking he gets into quite the melancholy mood. My favorite quote from him: "I'd give my life to be dead right now". He pulls off the isolated and tormented soul to perfection, as his character is very quickly driven to madness.

The supporting cast are all ripped straight from a Coen Brothers film. Everyone is weird in their own little way, and completely displaced from the world around them. One of the better representations of Death eventually shows up, and he asks Dellamorte why kill the dead when it is so much easier to kill the living. This should give you an idea how the last act plays out.

This is a brilliant and beautiful movie. I'm sure the talks of existentialism will turn some people off, but if you feel like you can handle it, you must give this unique film a watch or two. And if you have any interest in  filming or photography, then you have to watch this so you can really appreciate how much effort went into the actual filming. Regardless of how you view it, have fun trying to explain the ending.