Looks like 1984 Matt Dillon in The Flamingo Kid would still be cool today.
Things have been pretty quiet on the Brett Ratner front since the twin disasters of “Tower Heist” and his Oscar-producing flame out. Now, though, he has resurfaced–Deadline reports that Ratner plans to produce a remake of “The Flamingo Kid,” a 1984 comedy starring Matt Dillon. Nzingha Stewart will write the script.
“The Flamingo Kid” is about Jeffery, a new high school graduate who doesn’t really know what he wants to do with his life and doesn’t want to be who his parents want him to be. He gets a summer job as a cabana boy at the Flamingo Club, a beach club for rich people in town, and meets a wealthy, slick owner of a car dealership who seems to be everything Jeffery wants to be–until, of course, he finds out that the man isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.
I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard it’s more of an “okay” movie than a great one, though I have run into a few people who really love it. That brings us back to the eternal remake question: what’s the point? On the one hand, it’s not a masterpiece where no remake could ever measure up. On the other, it’s not so great that you feel like the world needs another. My guess is that it’s getting a remake because someone–possibly Ratner–just has fond memories of it and thinks the only way to share that affection with a new generation is to remake it. That’s all I can guess.
