THE FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS RATING: 6.5 /10 --> So-so
For more reviews and movie screensavers, http://www.joblo.com/
I'm gonna be honest with you on this one, folks. I really didn't want to see this movie! I love the cartoons, don't get me wrong, love both Hanna and Barbara, but geez-louise, the original FLINTSTONES movie just didn't do a thing for me. In fact, I barely even remember any of it (probably blocked it out of my memory), save for the enchanting performance by Halle Berry, and from what I do remember, it stunk to high heaven. All that to say that this film was actually pretty okay. That's right people...it didn't suck!!
PLOT: Based on the popular cartoon series, this film takes a look at the lives of our favorite Bedrock residents before they got married and had their own TV show. Fred and Barney just graduating from school and applying for jobs at the quarry. Wilma and Betty meeting for the first time. We even get to see where Gazoo and Dino came from. So will love bloom? Will Fred bowl once again? Stay tuned to find out.
CRITIQUE: Not bad, not bad at all. Definitely a crowd-pleaser with all the kids bellowing at my premiere, this film manages to balance a throwaway plot with some great special effects, a very cool and funny Gazoo and a quick, colorful pace. Of course, you don't go into a movie like the Flintstones expecting an Oscar-worthy script, but suspicious curiosity always abounds whenever I see the names of more than two people on a screenplay (this film credits four screenwriters). Some jokes work in this film, others don't, but for me, the only thing that really kept me going was the oh-so cool production values. I mean, there it is on the big screen, a whole prehistoric world filled with cool animal gadgets, oversized hamburgers and martini glasses, and yup...dinosaurs. I don't remember the original film impressing me as much with its extras (it also tried to tie a story in there as well...brrrrr), but this movie is chockfull of fun eye-candy, starting with an excellent representation of Gazoo.
Give this little green bastard his own movie, dammit! He ruled! Having said that, Gazoo seems to disappear about halfway through this film, coinciding with the movie's lame attempt at creating some tension between the characters (note: bring in a "bad guy"), and the manufactured Vegas story-line could only take you so far. I swore that if I saw one more scene with Wilma staring wistfully into the night, I would shit myself. Thankfully for all involved...no soiling took place. Performance-wise, I definitely appreciated the new casting choices much more than those in the original (Rosie O'Donnell as babelicious Betty...what were they thinking?!?), with the Rubbles scoring even higher points for getting their laughs down pat. And Stephen Baldwin even managed to go the entire film without shooting Nic Cage down once! Not bad, dude.
In a nutshell, I would say that this film delivers on various fronts including its authentic and exaggerated look, its nifty special effects (Dino is darn cute), and its quick pace. Plot-wise, things run pretty thin, as do some of the jokes, which hit and miss all around the campfire, but this movie isn't really targeted to lovers of classic cinema or to all those messy teens sweaty-palmed over GLADIATOR coming out next weekend. This movie is made by kids...for the kids! Huh?!? Well okay, it wasn't made by kids, but it will certainly be those very kids who will most likely appreciate the mindless frivolity of this movie, as well as certain "child-like" adults. And yes...guilty as charged.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: The bassist of the 80s supergroup "Duran Duran", John Taylor, makes an appearance in this film as one of the members of Mick Jagged's band. The character of Mick Jagged is played deliciously by actor Alan Cumming, a man who also does a great job of portraying the character of Gazoo in this film as well. Ironically, two actors in this film were also among the cast of Stanley Kubrick's final film EYES WIDE SHUT. Bad guy Thomas Gibson, as well as Alan Cumming, who played the cheeky hotel clerk. Director Brian Levant is a veteran at the children's movie game. He was also the man behind the camera of the original FLINTSTONES movie back in 1994, as well as Arnold's foray into kid's films, JINGLE ALL THE WAY, as well as BEETHOVEN and PROBLEM CHILD 2. One of the producers of this film is a gentleman by the name of Steven Spielberg. I'm not exactly sure what this guy has done before, but people tell me that he's famous and that he's made a couple of "interesting" movies himself. Oh well... ;)
Review Date: April 24, 2000 Director: Brian Levant Writers: Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. Producers: Steven Spielberg and Bruce Cohen Actors: Mark Addy as Fred Flintstone Stephen Baldwin as Barney Rubble Jane Krakowski as Betty O'Shale Kristen Johnston as Wilma Slaghoople Genre: Comedy Year of Release: 2000 ------------------------------------- JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------- (c) 2000 Berge Garabedian
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews