Man Vs. Snake

Title: Man Vs. Snake

Director: Andrew Seklir / Tim Kinzy

Released: 2016

Plot: Documentary following Tim Mcvey in his attempts to reclaim his world record score he set on “Nibbler” in 1984.

Review: Since the release of “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” there has been a lingering desire to see a follow up. After all it was like the nerd version of Rocky and if he can come back for a further six rounds surely there had to be another championship fight in the video game community right? Sneaking under the radar as it suddenly showed up on Netflix with little to no fanfare I really wasn’t expecting much from this latest video game documentary, but due to being compelled it would seem to watch every documentary on the subject which comes out I gave it a watch only to finally find the spiritual sequel that I had long been looking for. 

Focusing on “Nibbler” which as Tim McVey openly admits might be considered one of the big classic games along the likes of “Pac-Man” and “Donkey Kong” its just not one of the most well known ones much like its record holder McVey who before this documentary would likely be a name that no one would have known if asked to named a champion gamer, even his work colleagues can hardly believe that this quiet and permanently laid back guy would hold such a record let alone have been given the key to the city for his achievement. 

McVey is instantly likeable from the first time we are introduced to him, while his record breaking game as recounted by him you would hardly think that it was such a momentous feat which took him two consecutive days of gaming to achieve his Billion point score, with the highlight it would seem coming from his mom making his mac and cheese when he finally stumbled home with his record. Like Steve Wiebe in “King of Kong” McVey is another everyman gamer whose biggest achievement was winning his record. 

While he might not have created the same kind of legacy off his record as Donkey Kong / Pac-Man champion Billy Mitchell might have with his hot sauce business, McVey is still spurned into reclaiming his record when he learns that it was beaten a year after he set it by Italian gamer Enrico Zanetti but as Twin Galaxies offical Walter Day explains because the event was never recorded or witnessed by any the Twin Galaxies officials the score was never logged so McVey could technically just be happy as the named record holder but instead it spurns him into action to try and beat Zanetti’s score and setting in motion the events which form the main focus of the documentary. 

Not content with following McVey in his attempts to reclaim his record all these years later, there seems to be an overwhelming effort by directors Andrew Seklir / Tim Kinzy to create the same kind of rivalry that we saw between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell in “King of Kong” which really isn’t needed but alas they still try with Zanetti who could be seen as the Itallian Billy Mitchell especially with the pair sharing a world view but even with the ongoing dispute over his record validation its clear he’s moved on from his gaming days and has little interest in defending the title. Enter Dwayne Richard another old school gamer with a reputation for being able to recognise patterns in games which makes him the guy to beat. 

Inbetween the expected footage of both gamers standing in front their machines and subjecting themselves to insane periods of continuous gameplay to build up the disposable extra lives which will afford them a break. We also get bursts of animation for the recollections from the gamers of their previous attempts and helping to break up the documentary from being just another talking head heavy documentary while keeping the tone lighthearted and fun. 

To the credit of the film both McVey and Richard are fascinating subjects with McVey’s likeable and permanently laid back nature against the more oddball and hyper Richard. Frustratingly the desire for a rivalry and conflict does see Richard being portrayed similar to Billy Mitchell in “King of Kong” especially when a board glitch is found to give him an unfair advantage during the pair’s showdown at MAGFEST, the controversy surrounding it being made to seem like he planned this despite Richard upon finding out about this issue withdrawing his score. 

One of the issues the film makers encountered though was the lack of support from the retro gaming community outside of Twin Galaxies Head Official Walter Day and Billy Mitchell who both return for this documentary, while other people in the community where reluctant to be involved due to how they might be perceived. Billy Mitchell essentially gives us more of what we saw in “King of Kong” while providing some insight into the mindset of the players chasing these record scores. Walter Day meanwhile provides more of an insight into his background as he talks about going from dropping acid to discovering transcendental meditation as he only continues to grow all the more fascinating as a character the more of these appearances we see from him and making me wonder how long its going to be until he gets his own documentary?

A fantastic companion piece to “King of Kong” with a light hearted and once more surprisingly insightful look once more into the world of competitive retro gaming.

Pixels

Title: Pixels

Director: Chris Columbus

Released: 2015

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, Brian Cox, Ashley Benson, Jane Krakowski, Sean Bean

Plot: Aliens misinterpret a video of classic video games as a declaration of war attacking Earth using the characters from these games and leaving it down to gamers and lifelong friends Sam (Sandler) and Will (James) to use their videogame skills to defeat them and save the earth.

Review: For some reason much like M. Night Shyamalan the mere mention of Adam Sandler’s name being attached to any film is usually cause for the critics to start sharpening their knifes and while it’s true that he now seems to have settled into a routine with his comedies which appear to be based more around where he wishes to take his vacation and keeping his friends employed, let alone a bizarre obsession with “Hooters” which continues to show up in his films.

I’m not even going to try and convince you that this film is the one which see’s Sandler break away from his usual antics and gives us a ground breaking comedic experience as you certainly won’t get that here, neither the kind of surprise acting turn that we have seen him pull out of nowhere with the likes of “Punch Drunk Love” and “The Cobbler”. What we do get though is a fun and disposable comedy which shamelessly plays to the retro gamer fans taste for sure.

Opening in 1982 were Sam discovers that he can master video games by recognising the patterns and looks set to win the local video game championships only to lose to the obnoxious and egotistical Eddie Plant (Dinklage). Now flash forward to present day and Sam is working in home tech support setting up home cinema’s while best friend Will is now somehow the President of the United States….I did highlight this was an Adam Sandler movie right. Of course once the aliens invade Sam is of course the only person who can stop them, because seemingly no one else in the world plays old school video games.

Now armed with a bunch of hi-tech equipment Sam and Will team up with their other friend Ludlow (Gad) and former rival and still wildly egotistical Eddie to defeat the video game sprites which all take on the form of popular video game characters such as a giant Pac Man and Centipede with the weakness’s all matching their weaknesses in the game so hence Centipede has to be shot in the head while Pac Man has to be taken out by the mini coopers all assigned the names of the Ghosts from the game in one of the more memorable set pieces here.

All the cast are likable enough here with Sandler once more bringing his usual laid back comedic style while James and Gad are on hand for the more slapstick antics. Peter Dinklage meanwhile steals the show as Eddie as he constantly has something snarky to say and generally plays up his arsehole nature which seemingly has only gotten worse in the years which have passed since he beat Sam in the video game championships.

As I mentioned already this film really aims to shamelessly play up for the retro video game fans as it not only bombards the viewer with numerous refrences but also features cameos from cult figures from this world including former Donkey Kong World record holder Steve Wiebe whose battle to claim the title was so memorably documented in “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” and who here puts in a cameo as a military scientist while Pac Man creator Toru Iwatani shows up as an arcade repairman while we also get a fictional version played here by Denis Akiyama due to Iwatani not being able to speak English.

While this film is certainly  fun and has some standout moments it equally has some glaring flaws such as Eddie somehow being able to use video game cheat codes in real life with no explanation given to how exactly this is supposed to work. Equally frustrating is the fact we never see the aliens behind the attacks only their video game avatars so after Sam and co. beat Donkey Kong that’s it! No big reveal or anything while the fact that the video game vixen that Ludow unhealthy lusts over gets magically brought back via a morphing Q-Bert just felt too much like pandering to an audience who couldn’t handle any kind of downbeat outcome in the films ending.

While these flaws are frustrating it still does not make the film as bad as many critics would have you believe, perhaps having cast their judgement at the Sandler’s name being listed as the lead. However for old school gamers this is a fun disposable bit of nostalgia that doesn’t outstay its welcome while no doubt leave you wanting to dust off some of the games in your collection for another round.

The Lawnmower Man

Title: The Lawnmower Man

Director:  Brett Leonard
Released: 1992
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Fahey, Austin O’Brien, Jenny Wright, Geoffrey Lewis, Jeremy Slate, Dean Norris

Plot: Dr. Laurence Angelo (Brosnan) conducts experiments on chimps using a mixture of drugs and Virtual Reality to increase their intelligence as part of  “Project 5”, while constantly fighting with his superiors and their desire to use his research for military purposes. After one of his test chimps escapes and goes on the rampage, Dr. Angelo turns his focus towards testing on humans finding the perfect subject in the slow witted gardener Jobe (Fahey) who is also the titular lawnmower man.  Starting a program of accelerated learning, with Dr. Angelo using the same drugs he had been using on the chimps only with out the aggression factors of the original drugs. Soon it is not long before Jobe’s intelligence has greatly increased to the point were he is able to perform feats such as learning Latin in two hours, while also unlocking telepathic and pyrokinetic  abilities.

Soon Dr. Angelo’s work draws the attention of his superiors who have been keeping tabs on his progress, with the Project Director soon swapping the new drugs for the original “Project 5” ones, which inturn drive Jobe insane with power and on a path of revenge against those wronged him, while searching for a way to reach his final evolutionary state in the Virtual World.

Review:  Although it might be hard believe it now, but when this film was released back in 1992 this film was pretty groundbreaking with it’s use of computer graphics and portrayal of Virtual Reality, with the film in turn sparking a whole craze for Virtual Reality, to the point were VR machines regularly popped up in arcades over charging for the experience, while consoles rushed out supposed VR titles such as “VR Racing” and the still popular “Virtual Fighter”.
 

Essentially a cautionary tale about why man should not play god, the film explores theories regarding the use of Virtual Reality in this case as a way of increasing human intelligence, which at the same time the film explores some pretty big Cyber punk ideas, while easily drawing comparisons with Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” with Jobe at one point even saying

“I’m sorry you hate what you created”

 

The other key reference point here being Daniel Keyes “Flowers for Algernon” which it probably shares the closest links to, while at the same time the theories explored here are done simply and interestingly enough so not to baffle new comers, while also making good use of the relatively new (at the time of the films release) Virtual Reality technology, which it’s safe to say hasn’t aged well in the years since it’s released, which is always the risk with any use of CGI, but here it pretty evident as what was once considered mind blowing looks painfully dated as featureless characters float in space against acid trip background with only Virtual Jobe getting any kind of characteristics. Still if your willing to take these effects with an open mind there is alot of fun to be had with the assorted uses which are not only limited to the virtual world, but soon begin leaking into the real world as the lines between the two continue to grow all the more blurred for Jobe, as he’s able to reduce men to molecules and even more randomly project himself as a giant floating head. Still interestingly enough part of the studio responsible for these effects would later become “Rockstar North” a studio best know for the “Grand Theft Auto Series”.

The two lead characters are both fascinating characters, with the pacifist Dr. Angelo constantly having to betray these beliefs to further his own research while, clearly caring about Jobe’s progress even though at times he lets his passion for progress overwhelm his compassion frequently pushing Jobe into traumatizing situations in favour of his progressing his researching while Fahey is completely convincing as the slow witted Jobe, with his childlike curiosity and friendship with the young boy Peter (O’Brien) who is essentially on the same mental level as Jobe if not higher, making their friendship seem completely natural, while Fahey naturally portrays the continually increasing intelligence of Jobe, to the point were he is able to change him from the lovable doofus to a terrifying megalomaniac as his power spirals out of control.

Despite being a cautionary tale, Jobe’s actions are frequently seen as more than an insane quest for power, especially as he seen being so frequently abused by the local bully Jake who frequently taunts him, while being even more regularly flogged for forgetting to do his chores by the sadistic priest whose shed he lives in, with both of these characters soon being targets for his revenge, while also unleashing a telepathically controlled lawnmower on Peter’s alcoholic father in one of the more laughable sequences of the film, while the majority of the other deaths at Jobe’s hands usually being the result of him being antagonised and unsurprisingly these scenes form the weaker parts of the film with the more interesting parts certainly being the Jobe’s ever increasing intelligence and Dr. Angelo intelligence enhancing experiments than Jobe’s ongoing quest for revenge and god like power.
Perhaps a better use of virtual reality would have been to film an established cyber punk classic like William Gibsons “Neuromancer”, but it did still pave the way for CGI in modern cinema by giving an example of what the effects could be used to create, while also leading the way to some abysmal attempts to follow up it’s success like “Arcade” and “Virtuosity” aswell as the ultimately superior yet more old school effects driven “eXistenZ.

“The Lawnmower Man” despite now being largely forgotten outside of sci-fi fans, grizzled VR boffins who felt that the film gave an unrealistic expectations of Virtual Reality, aswell as a brief legal case with Horror legend Stephen King, for the connection to his own short story about a man who eats what he mows (yes really) and to which this film has zero connection outside of a throw away line about part of one of Jobe’s victims being found in a birdbath and the less said about the sequel the better really, especially as the studio doubted that anyone would actually buy it so much, that they now give it away for free with this film. Still it is a film still worth giving a look even as a fun companion piece to the superior “Tron”.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Title: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Director:  Seth Gordon
Released: 2007

 

Plot: Documentary following the battle between reigning champion Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe for the high score on "Donkey Kong".

 

Review: It is a well established fact that to be the best at something, that it requires sacrifice and the men who the focus of this documentary are no stranger to sacrifice with many giving up hundreds of hours of their life, as well as time with their friends and family, with many clearly looking like their have also sacrificed several other things such as taking showers and the generally any form of human contact…..ladies and gentlemen please allow me to welcome you to the world of competitive classic video gaming!

At the centre of this documentary is the rivalry between two champion gamers and their battle to hold the world record score on “Donkey Kong”. On one side we have self proclaimed “Sauce King” of Florida Billy Mitchell, the current reigning champion whose score of 874,300 has remained unbeaten since he first set it back in the 80’s and who has on the back of this celebrity for this score build a successful line of homemade sauces. Now stepping up to the challenge we have high school science teacher Steve Wiebe and manages to beat Billy’s high score with a new record of 1,006,600 points unwittingly sparking a rivalry between the two men as they now battle to be the King of Kong.

Inspired by a Time Magazine article featuring the top players of the early 80’s and their scores on 12 of the top arcade games at the time, which included such classic games as Missile Command, Pac Man and the all important Donkey Kong, games which were never designed to be beaten and unlike games today required piles of quarters and countless hours of practice to master, as these were games without the  unlimited lives and replays of modern games, especially as many never even had ending screens, but rather “Kill Screens” instead were the game either appears as random computer code or even more randomly just kills your character. When director Seth Gordon set out to make this documentary he had originally intended to make it about the holders of these top scores, only to disregard the idea when he met Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, to men who play “Donkey Kong” at the highest level, knowing that he had found his story.

The two men at the heart of the documentary are almost polar opposites to each other with Steve Wiebe shown as the everyman who after being laid off from what should have been a lifelong career at Boeing had set himself a goal of beating the top “Donkey Kong” score after randomly stumbling across “Twin Galaxies” website which is recognised as the official scorekeepers for Classic Video Game High scores. Wiebe here is shown as a figure of continuous misfortune with friends noting several occasions in the past where he has come up short, from his childhood as a Star Baseball pitcher who failed to pitch at the State Championships due to injury and a talent drummer in an early grunge band who failed to get any recognition with every accomplishment his has had always taken from him at the key moment.

Billy Mitchell on the other hand is shown as unashamedly arrogant and cocky without an ounce of self doubt, as he continually peddles his own personal life philosophies and willing to do anything he can to retain his championship title, while frequently coming across like a bad villain from an 80’s action movie, which is ironic seeing how this is a documentary about video games from the same period and while it could be argued that this persona is the result of how the film is edited, despite Gordon going on record to say that Mitchell was “so much worse than we painted him out to be,” and that he only included scenes necessary to tell the story as well as stating that the film would have been much darker if he hadn’t, which is only made more believable when fellow documentary film maker Morgan Spurlock, caught up with Mitchell several years after the films release for a follow up interview for the “50 Documentaries To See Before You Die” countdown were the film charted at #41. In this interview Mitchell almost seemed to not really care what he did as long as he was able to retain his legacy, while frequently seeming aloof during the interview especially when he was questioned about various parts of the documentary.

Mainly following Wiebe as he sets about beating the score only to soon find himself battling more than Mitchell and his score, as he finds his own score under scrutiny from members of the “Twin Galaxies” officials board, which Mitchell is more baffling a member of, while also being the realm of Chief Referee Robert Mruczek and Mitchells self styled protégé Brian Kuh who are both unscrupulous in theirs bids to discredit Wiebe’s scores, even at one point breaking into Wiebe’s garage to examine his “Donkey Kong” machine. Still despite this opposition Wiebe continues to fight to get his scores recognised, while trying to arrange a live battle against Mitchell to find out who truly is the champion.

Although it’s a documentary about Classic Video Games and their more obsessed fans, the documentary still also has a lot of heart and manages to rise way about what could have been a clip show of your stereotypical nerdy gamers, but here they are shown on the same level as Olympian athletes as Gordon attempts to understand what it is about these games and more importantly the World Record Donkey Kong score, a battle which has all the feeling of a heavy weight title fight at these two titans battle to claim the top spot. Aswell as this main title fight we also get to meet a lot of interesting characters from the Classic Video Game scene, such the world’s oldest video game player Doris Self and “Twin Galaxies” founder Walter Day who frequently finds himself in the crossfire throughout the film especially as the battle lines are drawn. We also get to meet the equally colourful Roy Shildt a self styled fitness guru and pickup artist who high score on “Missile Command” has frequently brought him into conflict with several of the “Twin Galaxies” officials in particular Billy Mitchell, with Shildt’s scenes in the film being amongst my favourites, much like one gamer taking his frustration out on his car. Shildt’s scenes are also especially interesting as he frequently provides the sole counter argument to how “Twin Galaxies” is run.

Since the films release the record has since been broken again by Plastic surgeon Dr. Hank Chein with a record score of 1,090,400 points, while “Twin Galaxies” have continued to hold Video Game contests including their Iron Man contest to see if any game could be played for 100 hours straight, a challenge which remained unbeaten despite gamer James Vollandt playing “Joust” for 67½ hours frequently using dangerous techniques to stay awake including blasting himself in the face with Freon and all subject matter which would make for a great follow up documentary, even though Director Gordon seems currently set on making the follow up as a feature film focusing on how the documentary changed their lives and how the rivalry has continued, which personally I would love to see, but for now it’s fun to get lost in the nostalgia this film provides, while being one of the most surprisingly entertaining documentaries ever made.

Indie Game: The Movie

Title: Indie Game: The Movie

Director:  James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot

Released: 2012

 

Plot: Documentary following the development of the independent video games Super Meat Boy, Fez and Braid as their creator’s battle to bring them to market.

Review: Its fitting really for a documentary which celebrates the independent spirit of its creators that this film would be funded through Kickstarter while also whittled down from over 300 hours of footage with the end result playing like a past, present and future of the development process as well as the Indie game market at the time while for those not familiar with indie games it also provides a fitting entry point into this sub-section of gaming whose popularity only continues to grow through channels like “Steam” and “Xbox Marketplace” which enable the developers to forgo the traditional instore route of distribution.

Representing the past section “Braid” represents one of the breakout games alongside the likes of “Fat Princess” and “Castle Crashers” which drew gamers attention to the independent scene as a place where creators are free to tell the stories they want, while also getting to experiment with new ideas which “Braid” creator Jonathan Blow chose to do by allowing players to rewind the game as a way of solving puzzles, an evolution from the rewind power seen in the newer “Prince of Persia” games and as we see here tweaked slightly by Blow. As an designer Blow seems the most withdrawn of the creators showcased here, with “Braid” he informs us being used as a place to put his “deepest flaws and vulnerabilities”  while relishing the journey from experimentation to discovery as we see the game journey from its simple beginnings to its finished game. It’s hard to tell if how we see Blow in the film is the real him or his more disillusioned self-seeing how he gets frustrated with players not getting the message he was trying to portray in the game and launching him into a campaign of responses on either reviews or forums were the game is being discussed as he attempts to explain the game to audience. Blow as a result comes off perhaps a little more pretentious than he perhaps would like to be seen and perhaps why his time is more limited than the other creators.

Certainly on the lighter side are the creators of “Super Meat Boy” Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes also known as “Team Meat” who are shown battling to finish the game in time to be part of the Xbox promotion “Game Feast”. There game a fiendish platform game in which its titular hero is a block of meat who battles through each level to save his girlfriend made of bandages from the top hat wearing fetus in a jar scientist Dr. Fetus. and which as we see though many of the cut scenes from the game equally serves as a platform for them to cram in as many nerdy references as possible. A pair of contradicting souls McMillen is certainly the most light hearted of the pair with Refenes frequently shown to be struggling to deal with the pressures and demands required to deliver the game on time. At the same its their segments of the film which are also the most enjoyable, perhaps due to their laid back nature let alone the issues they tackle being due to the game rather than the outside influences that Johnathan Blow and Phil Fish are shown to be dealing with.

Ironically the future section of the film is the game which has been in development the longest having first been announced at the “Independent Games Festival” back in 2008 turning its creator Phil Fish into a celebrity of the indie video game world, but as the film catches up with Fish he is seemingly still no closer to finishing the game, even confessing to having rebuilt the game four times already. Despite this Fish comes off as another enthusiastic creator and who like Blow can’t see himself working for a major label instead preferring the freedom the indie market allows as emphasised by the game which he refers to as being a “Stop and smell the flowers” kind of game, especially with it featuring none of the usual requirements for mainstream games such as boss fights etc. Now massively over due Fish has to deal with an onslaught of hate from gamers frustrated by the continually delays of the game, which even by the end of the film is yet to be finished with Fish aiming hopfully for a 2012 release.

While the film has a strong focus on the development of the games, it’s equally as interesting when looking at the effects that these games have on their creators social lives with their relationships and certainly in the case of Refenes his health. Their dedication to finishing their games only becoming all the more commendable when you realise what they are willing to sacrifice just to get their games finished while perhaps at the same time making you wonder if such risks are worth it?

While the documentary spends a lot of time going into the mechanics of each of the three games featured, there is also numerous segments were the creators get to explain why they made the game the way they did, as seen with Edmund McMillen’s explanation of how he teaches the player the controls for “Super Meat Boy” in the game. Equally interesting is getting to see where they draw their inspiration from with McMillen finding a way to communicate with people through games with his previous game “Aether” being highlighted as an outlet for channelling the feelings from his childhood, such as his fear of being abandoned and loneliness.  Phil Fish meanwhile links his love of programing back to his early video game experiments with his father which are also shown here with their delightful simplicity.

A fascinating documentary and to certainly rank next to “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” for its unabashed love of its subject material, while for gamers who havn’t discovered these games previously perhaps providing the inspiration to wander off the well beaten track of mainstream gaming.