The new semester has begun, and that means a whole lot of stress and lots of studying, so movies that don’t really require a whole lot of thinking might be a nice release.
Hot Rod — Andy Samberg of Saturday Night Live fame plays stuntman Rod Kimble. Rod lives at home, refusing to grow up or get a real job. He tries and fails to earn the respect of his stepfather Frank through numerous fistfights. After Frank discovers he needs a life-saving heart transplant, Rod must make the jump of his career in order to save Frank’s life — so he can finally beat him up Frank to earn his respect. Go figure.
If you aren’t familiar with Andy Samberg, do yourself a favor and look up his Digital Short videos from SNL. Hot Rod is full of really dumb humor and loads of memorable quotes. Plus it has Gob from Arrested Development, so what more do you need?
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters — This documentary is about the world of competitive video games. Not Playstation or X-Box, but vintage arcade games. Billy Mitchell was the reigning Donkey Kong champion of the world for more than 20 years and a hero to many nerds. Then Steve Wiebe, an average family man, replaced Billy Mitchell as Donkey Kong champion, creating a rivalry the likes of which the arcade world had never seen. Billy and Steve compete to top one another’s score as nerds from all over the country fly in to watch history in the making.
Don’t let the word documentary scare you. It is surprisingly entertaining because it actually plays out like a scripted movie, unlike other documentaries. King of Kong also gives an inside look at video gamers and why they do what they do. Here’s a direct quote: “I wanted the pretty girls to come up and say ‘Hi, I see that you’re good at Centipede.” Once again, go figure.
