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The Flamingo Kid
Some good actors are wasted in a really forgettable comedy called The Flamingo Kid, which seems to be director Garry Marshall's variation on Caddyshack, but doesn't work nearly as well.
The 1984 comedy stars Matt Dillon as Jeffrey Willis, a kid who is supposed to work in an office for the summer but instead gets a job at the El Flamingo, the local beach club, where Jeffrey finds his head turned by wealthy fat cat Phil Brody (Richard Crenna) who is the club's gin rummy champion.
Marshall and his brother Neal collaborated on this simplistic and predictable screenplay that offers no surprises and goes everywhere you expect it to, but the cast so engaging that sometimes you don't notice it. There was serious Oscar-buzz for Richard Crenna's charismatic performance here and Marshall good luck charm hector Elizondo is rock solid as Jeffrey's father, the humble plumber who refuses to let his son be stolen from him by the fat cat. Sadly, the obligatory romance with Carla (Janet Jones) is a real snore and every time she and Dillon share the screen the film comes to a complete halt.
The film does have some real continuity issues...according to the screen, the film takes place in 1963, but most of the music in the background is from the 50's and the settings and costumes are all very 70's and 80's. There's nothing definitive about this movie that says "the 60's" other than a single crawl at the bottom of the screen and sometimes the mixing of the very decades gets very distracting.
Still, this role was a real departure for Dillon, unlike anything he had ever done before. Dillon has never been so sweet and unassuming onscreen before, playing a character completely devoid of ego and full of heart. Fisher Stevens also makes the most of his screen time as Jeffrey's buddy and Jessica Walter is splendid as Crenna's wife, who spends half the movie trying to remember Jeffrey's name. Penny Marshall's daughter Tracy plays Polly and Garry Marshall's son, Scott, appears in the opening scene playing stickball. but as an overall positive film experience, it either just doesn't hit the mark or it just hasn't aged very well.
Some good actors are wasted in a really forgettable comedy called The Flamingo Kid, which seems to be director Garry Marshall's variation on Caddyshack, but doesn't work nearly as well.
The 1984 comedy stars Matt Dillon as Jeffrey Willis, a kid who is supposed to work in an office for the summer but instead gets a job at the El Flamingo, the local beach club, where Jeffrey finds his head turned by wealthy fat cat Phil Brody (Richard Crenna) who is the club's gin rummy champion.
Marshall and his brother Neal collaborated on this simplistic and predictable screenplay that offers no surprises and goes everywhere you expect it to, but the cast so engaging that sometimes you don't notice it. There was serious Oscar-buzz for Richard Crenna's charismatic performance here and Marshall good luck charm hector Elizondo is rock solid as Jeffrey's father, the humble plumber who refuses to let his son be stolen from him by the fat cat. Sadly, the obligatory romance with Carla (Janet Jones) is a real snore and every time she and Dillon share the screen the film comes to a complete halt.
The film does have some real continuity issues...according to the screen, the film takes place in 1963, but most of the music in the background is from the 50's and the settings and costumes are all very 70's and 80's. There's nothing definitive about this movie that says "the 60's" other than a single crawl at the bottom of the screen and sometimes the mixing of the very decades gets very distracting.
Still, this role was a real departure for Dillon, unlike anything he had ever done before. Dillon has never been so sweet and unassuming onscreen before, playing a character completely devoid of ego and full of heart. Fisher Stevens also makes the most of his screen time as Jeffrey's buddy and Jessica Walter is splendid as Crenna's wife, who spends half the movie trying to remember Jeffrey's name. Penny Marshall's daughter Tracy plays Polly and Garry Marshall's son, Scott, appears in the opening scene playing stickball. but as an overall positive film experience, it either just doesn't hit the mark or it just hasn't aged very well.