"The King of Kong"

Opens Friday. Recommended. The first documentary I saw this year at Slamdance. The L.A. Times is right about the antagonist:

When director Seth Gordon and producer Ed Cunningham set out to make a documentary about the world of classic arcade gaming, they had no idea they would stumble upon -- or possibly create -- one of the greatest summer movie villains ever.

That "villain" turned out to be video game legend Billy Mitchell. Having nabbed high scores on a variety of games, including Centipede and Donkey Kong, Mitchell has enjoyed the limelight since 1982, when Life magazine crowned him one of "the best gamers in the world." So it's no wonder that when Seattle-based junior high school teacher Steve Wiebe decided to try to beat Mitchell's record Donkey Kong score, Mitchell appeared to do everything in his power to keep him from winning . . . even if it meant pulling some insider strings.

The intriguing good-versus-evil struggle toward a new world record -- playing better on-screen at times than most big-budget Hollywood rivalries -- is the focus of Gordon's "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," which opens Friday.

As a child, Gordon had spent many memorable family vacations at New Hampshire's Funspot -- now the largest video game arcade in the world, so a film about arcade gaming was a natural. Often the site of sanctioned competitions (and the setting of much of the film), the Funspot was a draw for Gordon, because he knew that whatever direction the documentary took, he'd get to go there for work, 15 years after loving it as a kid. Says Gordon, "That's honestly all I needed to know."

When filming began, Gordon had only Wiebe on board. Having recently lost his job at Boeing, and not yet settled on working as a teacher, Wiebe had time on his hands. So while his wife supported the family, he dived headlong into his quest to break Mitchell's record. But while Wiebe was "a very down-to-earth guy," says Gordon, "he's not the best subject for a documentary."

For the film to work, Wiebe would need to face down the legend whose 1982 Donkey Kong record of 874,300 he was trying to beat. In the world of arcade games, "all roads lead to Billy," says Gordon. "He's the expert, so we had to go visit him."

"You have to go kiss the ring," says Cunningham. "It's very much like going to see the don."

And while the charismatic Mitchell, the entrepreneur behind Rickey's Hot Sauce, agreed to be involved with the documentary, he never agreed to be cast as Dr. Evil to Wiebe's Austin Powers. But the minute the videotape of Wiebe reaching a score of 1,006,600 arrived at the offices of Twin Galaxies (the official organization responsible for approving any video game world record), it ended up that way.

"I was the guy coming in on his turf, trying to take over," says Wiebe. "I think that got his competitive spirits fired up. He was doing things that no one ever saw him do before. [It] just appeared to be 'evil.'"