In recent years Google and Facebook have both become such wildly successful entities that their names have become ‘actions’ in our culture. Ten years ago if you had told someone to ‘Google it,’ they may have punched you in the face assuming you were being quite rude, but now we know exactly what that means. And if you take an awesome picture with friends, chances are they are going to tell you that you need to ‘Facebook it immediately!’

This type of awareness explosion is nothing new in our history, but it is happening much faster now thanks to advances in technology. The game of Monopoly is one of the most successful board games ever created and has the same awareness level as Google and Facebook but unlike these new modern additions to the zeitgeist, Monopoly took over 30 years to be created and to catch on!

Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story is a documentary that traces the origins of the game all the way back to its very first incarnation in 1903 and then follows the evolution of it all the way up to the 2009 Monopoly World Championship Tournament. (Yes, they have those.) And while you may think you already know the story behind this cross cultural gaming phenomenon, trust me when I say there is way more to it than you think.

I grew up playing this game with my grandparents and like most people it was probably the first time I ever actually handled money. Learning about buying and selling property, the exhilaration of bankrupting my family and being the last one left standing were all things that I never gave much thought to. It was just such an integral part of my childhood that questions of where it came from or why we did it never entered my mind. But the story behind why the game was created and the universal effect that it has on people is really amazing to hear. If you have a very personal story about playing the game as a kid and you’ve always thought it was a unique one chances are you are dead wrong! I was blown away by hearing so many other people telling ‘my Monopoly story,’ that it really put the effect this game has had on the world in perspective.

I don’t want to give the impression that this movie is boring and god forbid ‘educational’ in anyway because while you will learn a lot about the origins of the game and probably a lot about your own childhood as well it is first and foremost a really fun exciting film.

Now how in the world do you make an exciting movie about a board game that generally takes families hours to play and often times will never reach the actual end? That’s a question for filmmaker Kevin Tostado who managed to

do exactly that. The film is the perfect combination of historical background information and ‘happening as you see it’ coverage of what is essentially a real sporting event.

What most people don’t know is that every four years or so there are Monopoly Championship Tournaments held in various cities all across the world. The winners of those preliminary rounds are then entered into the World Championship Monopoly Tournament which touts a grand prize of $20,580 (which is incidentally the actual amount of the bank in Monopoly). The last World Championship was held in Vegas complete with showgirls and all of the fanfare accorded to a sporting event that has such an impressive purse up for grabs. I found myself actually rooting for certain players by the end and was completely invested in the outcome.

Visually Tostado keeps the audience engaged and entertained with some highly stylized editing and some wonderfully unique graphics work. This is by no means a stale old school documentary. This has an entirely modern pace that succeeds in grabbing the audiences’ attention and keeping them invested in the film throughout.

If I had a single complaint it would be that I could have seen about 8 – 10 minutes of the film being cut for time but at 88 minutes the run time is far from excessive.

I went in to Under the Boardwalk thinking that it might be slightly amusing to see some people who had an overwhelmingly passionate love for this game and what types of characters these folks might be. I also figured I’d learn a little bit more about a game that I had been playing all of my life. I’m happy to say that I ultimately walked away with so much more than just that. The film is exciting, it has real stakes, real people to root for and if you manage to watch this movie and leave WITHOUT wanting to go home and bust out the old Monopoly board for a round or two then you must not have been paying attention!