The Flamingo Kid (1984)

Please don't spend money on this.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Admirable film.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Garry Marshall certainly had a feel for the mood and atmosphere of New York in the Kennedy years in directing The Flamingo Kid. I knew someone who practically lived at the Brighton Beach Baths in Brooklyn growing up and who played a mean competitive paddle tennis.Matt Dillon is our hero protagonist at the Long Island summer beach club where the boys live for the tips. But the guests here tip like Frank Sinatra, in fact some of them are paying their way through college. They're rich and like to thrown their money around. Just have your hand out and catch as a cabana boy.Dillon is a working class kid with parents Hector Elizondo and Jessica Walter and dad's a working guy all his life and like every other parent hopes his kid will do better than being a plumber. Funny thing is that plumbers do very well and the work is steady.But Dillon falls under the influence of charismatic car dealer Richard Crenna who eschews the value of education. He's Donald Trump with a little more polish. He also has a nice side income in some high stakes gin rummy games with some regulars at the cabana.Essentially Dillon has to make a choice and get an education or go to work as Crenna's dealership. For all their smoothness it would probably astound Crenna at how much he does not know, but he probably wouldn't care.Let's say Crenna is not quite the hero Dillon first thinks he is. Matt does a lot of growing up at that cabana that summer.The Flamingo Kid is an acting duel between Dillon and Crenna. Dillon strikes a lot of emotions as the tough kid from Brooklyn who makes the right moves in the end. Crenna does one of the best performances in his career as a charming, but sneaky and potentially dangerous if the conflict was more than a gin rummy game.Garry Marshall gives us a winner with The Flamingo Kid.

I always enjoy seeing something set in 1963 too; last year of that '50s era before everything kinda went to the 60's everyone knows and cringes at. Very well made, fine acting, Dillon, Crenna, Walter and Elizondo especially all at the top of their games.Watch out for the scene where Elizondo encounters Crenna for the first time and sez: 'I already know who you are' more or less to Crenna. He can tell this is the type that would screw his friends at card games or in anything just to get ahead.They don't beat you over the head with the 'coming of age life-lessons', but they are believably done and the movie does sink in as you watch it.No surprise that Janet Jones greatest fame was as Gretzky's wife--now BETTING wife(!) at that---not as an actress. She's just kinda flat. Very easy on the eyes certainly but....Baywatch gal level you know? Check it out, the DVD doesn't have any extras but the story itself is well worth watching. Fun cameos by Steven Weber (Wings) and Marisa Tomei(Cousin Vinny) etc. too.*** outta ****

Charming comedy from Garry Marshall starring Dillon as a Brooklyn teenager taken aback by the smooth lifestyles at a posh beach club. At the club he meets swift characters like car dealer Richard Crenna, in a wonderful role and the lovely Janet Jones, before the Gretzky. Hector Elizondo is also stand out as Dillon's father. Marshall also wrote the script for the film and it flows with heart and humor all the way through.

This is a wonderfully entertaining story chock full of lessons in life. The lessons, are pretty universal and most have to be learned the hard way. The "kid", played by Matt Dillon, enters the world of the well-to-do, more well to do than him anyway. He is from a blue-collar neighborhood in 1963 Brooklyn. His entry??? Employment at the "El Flamingo", an upper-middle class beach club. Richard Crenna, wonderful as the slick, gin rummy playing member, befriends the kid. The lessons of the world revolve around the "big" gin rummy game. Lots of laughs, lots of fun, and Janet Jones make this movie a must see. I've seen it dozens of times myself, and will probably watch it dozens more.One more thing. A special mention to Jessica Walter. She gave one of the most believe-able performances I've ever seen. I HATED HER.