High Score

A large amount of travel, research and filming has taken place for what is a thoroughly enjoyable 52 minutes. All of the relevant parties, including referees, technicians and previous high scorers are all included in the footage, even though they live all over America.

The insight provided into a retro-gamer's life is not only detailed, but also very personable and believable. Nobody is acting.

This film is not so much about the game - It is more about the people, whose goals and interests make the movie. The High Score premise makes you watch until the finish, just to see what happens.

There is a surprise ending, and a fantastic carefully picked soundtrack.

I'm waiting for a sequel.

David

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade; two great documentaries on classic video gaming. Well, with High Score, I can now say there's a holy trinity of video game documentaries. There could be others out there, and I really hope there are, but from what I know, these three are the go to ones if you enjoy to watch nerds do what nerds do best. And no, it's not pop zits or chug soda...it's dominate video games!

Missile Command is a game that the average player plays for only a couple minutes or so. Our main man, Bill Carlton, is on a quest to topple the high score of 80 million points by playing it for around 55 hours...straight. Through talent, mental strength and having a solid sense of humor, Bill is definitely the man for the job. All he needs is an arcade that won't poop out on him.

High Score was a great little documentary that is thankfully led by a pretty damn unique guy in Bill. And that gets me thinking....guys named Bill are really good at playing video games. But anyways, Bill's perseverance, confidence (he constantly says he's gonna kick the game's ass), talent, red hair and humor are on full display here, and if you're a fan of the other docs I mentioned above, don't hesitate to check this one out. And let me tell you something else, the ending of this movie will have you laughing your ass off. Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!