The King of Kong

Take what sounds like a terrible premise - ONE MAN'S QUEST TO BREAK THE DONKEY KONG WORLD RECORD HIGH SCORE!!!! - and mix in some highly-compelling and interesting characters and what do you have? A truly remarkable documentary! King of Kong follows the efforts of Steve Wiebe, an unemployed family man with a passion for Donkey Kong. Wiebe purchases his own machine, sets up shop in his garage and sets to work. Along the way, we're introduced a host of remarkable personalities - Walter Day, the founder of Twin Galaxies, the arcade that maintains the list of "official" high scores. Billy Mitchell, the first man to ever achieve a perfect game on Pac-Man and the current record holder for Donkey Kong. And lots of others as well. There's intrigue - with Mitchell & Day possibly conspiring to sabotage Wiebe's efforts. There's drama. There's poignancy. There have been some questions raised on the accuracy of the editing and timelines in the movie but ignore that chatter. This is a GREAT movie. It can be enjoyed by anyone but will ring especially true for anybody who practically grew up in an arcade, like myself. This is the standard by which all "video game documentaries" will be judged. 10/10.

* - if you happen to get the DVD version of this, watch it twice - once as released, and once with the director's commentary. The commentary is awesome.

Vantage Point

Dennis Quaid is a Secret Service agent seeing his first duty since taking a bullet for the prez some time ago. That dude from Lost is his partner. They're in Spain for some conference with a gazillion other world leaders and the prez is going to give a speech in the courtyard of a palace or something. Anyway, the prez gets shot and all chaos breaks out. The gimmick, and title of the movie, is that we see the same 15 minutes or so from all different vantage points in order to piece together what all happened. The action is fast, the movie is slick, and the gimmick is a fun one. There's some twists and turns, of course. There's also a much higher than I remember body count (this being the second time I've seen the movie). Anyway, this is a well-done movie with everyone doing a good job in their part. Entertaining, definitely. 7/10.

Juno

Ellen Page is Juno, a 16-year old who gets pregnant by her boyfriend Paul, played by Michael Cera. Juno isn't ready to be a mom so she's going to give up her child for adoption by a couple played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. The movie is about Juno's relationship with Paul, with her dad & stepmom, and with the adoptive couple. In general, this movie works pretty well. I think I liked it more the first time I saw it but it's still pretty good on a second watch. It feels fairly authentic though Juno's dialogue is often really rude and is disaffected youth to the extreme and ends up being grating and annoying frequently. There are a lot of funny moments and the cast is terrific. Page and Cera were basically made for their roles and the supporting folks (Garner, Bateman, JK Simmons, and Allison Janney and a great cameo from Rainn Wilson) are all fantastic. Anyway, this one is pretty good, right at the Tabedoza line - 7/10.

Reign Over Me

Adam Sandler is Charlie Fineman, a dentist whose life is destroyed when his wife, three children and dog, are aboard one of the planes on 9/11. Don Cheadle plays his college roommate who sees Fineman wandering the streets four years later. Fineman has disconnected from the world, retreating into a life of endlessly remodeling his kitchen, video games, and shutting himself off. Sandler is REALLY great in this. He shows us Fineman's pain and it is raw and overwhelming. Cheadle is excellent as always and the rest of the cast does a nice job of rounding things out. This is a fantastic movie. The ending is perhaps a bit too easy but the rest is really great. 9/10.

Dan in Real Life

Holy cow do I love this movie. Steve Carell is Dan, a widowed advice columnist and father of three. He's at a family weekend when he meets an incredible woman, only to find out later - when she shows up at that family weekend - that she's his brother's girlfriend. This is a sweet, gentle movie that's very funny but in an understated way. Carell is fantastic and Dane Cook is good as the brother. Just a fantastic movie - 9/10.

Heckler

Disorganized mess that starts out as a treatise on people who heckle at comedy shows and morphs into bashing critics. In between that, Jamie Kennedy confronts critics or hecklers and asks them why they hate him. Kennedy is the maker of the movie. In the end, the whole thing just kind of meanders without really making a point. 2/10.

Into the Wild

Christoper McCandless is a guy just graduated from college who feels trapped in his everyday life. So he gives away his life savings, cuts up all his credit cards, takes on a fake name and disappears. He wanders the country for 2 years, dipping down into Mexico for a bit, before heading up to Alaska to "live off the land" and find himself. He ends up taking up house in an abandoned school bus and leaving in Alaska for four months before dying under unclear circumstances. This is based on a true story and, other than his death*, is apparently very close to the real story. Directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch, this is really good. There's a sadness to the movie as you know it doesn't end well and that this guy just abandoned his family without warning and without contacting them. Jon Krakauer wrote a book on the guy, tracking down a bunch of the people he met - the hippies who live in Slab City, the grain farmer who gave him a job, the old guy who wanted to adopt him, and more - and studying his writings and photos. I think a lot of us can relate to the romantic notion of just "dropping off the grid" and disappearing. This movie shows the not-so-romantic reality of that. I'd had this movie in my queue for a long time but decided to watch it when it came up in the news this week as another idiot decided to try and emulate this guy and died trying. I really enjoyed this one - 8/10. Look for Jena Malone and Kristen Stewart in small roles as well.

* - the death theory presented in the movie has since been conclusively proven incorrect.