The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

There is actually no need to comment on the film itself. It's pants! End of story.

I never thought I would ever say it but the best thing in this movie is Stephen Baldwin!! This tells you all you need to know.

The story is poor. Mark Addy as Fred is out of his depth and not as loveable a character as John Goodman.

Please save your children and take them to the park and get some fresh air.

It's just a fun movie. Not all that big, once in a lifetime, classic type.

I found it fun - but not as good as the 1st one.

I came on here to review this movie, and I was really surprised at the rating. I didn't think the movie was that bad. It is flawed in a lot of ways, but there is some fun embedded in the film. I am stuck on whether it is better than the 1994 movie or inferior. If I were to be picky, I would say better in some areas, inferior in others. My main flaws were with the script and some of the plot. The script is weak in places, but has some funny moments, mainly with the little green alien. The plot I think is stronger than the one in the 1994 movie, but slower in pace and does suffer from one or two hasty and over-familiar subplots like Chip stealing Wilma's necklace and framing Fred. I liked it though that it detailed of how Fred and Wilma met, and the scene at the bowling area was sweet with the Nutcracker serving as background music. Mark Addy looks more the part of Fred than John Goodman, but I felt that he slightly underplayed, and I did find Stephen Baldwin too tall and too gormless as Barney. However, Kristen Johnson is wonderfully voluptuous as Wilma and Jane Krakowski, what can I say, better than Rosie O'Donnell. As much as I like O'Donnell, she wasn't quite right for Betty in the 1994 film, Krakowski was perfect. In terms of supporting actors, Alan Cumming is amusing as Mick Jagged and even better as Gazoo and Joan Collins is a sheer delight as Pearl. Thomas Gibson has his moments as Chip. The soundtrack is great, and the scenery, costumes and design of Dino were spot on. Plus that little alien is cute, and the dance routine at the end was lots of fun. All in all, has its flaws but it's a fun prequel. 6/10 Bethany Cox

"The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas" is actually slightly more bearable than the truly horrible 1994 movie, but that really isn't saying much. Where the previous one suffered from chronically bad casting for the Flintstones and the Rubbles (except for Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma), this benefits from Stephen Baldwin and Jane "Best reason to watch 'Ally McBeal' not called Lucy Liu" Krakowski making a far less annoying Barney and Betty than Rick Moranis and Rosie O'Donnell (the latter the only major cast member to return here, in voice mode only). The movie also has a few nice little touches like pictures of the cartoon Fred and Barney handed out to people, and the specially modified Universal logo with the Earth only showing one continent behind the word "Univershell" ("Did anyone else see those giant letters out there?").

Alan Cumming as the Great Gazoo (and a Mick Jagger-type rock star) is also one of the movie's pros... and indicative of its cons. Writers Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont ("Can't Hardly Wait," "Josie and the Pussycats") and the late Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr ("Top Gun," "Anaconda") go for too many cheap gags, have a wilful disregard for the show's mythology - Gazoo didn't arrive until Fred and Barney were both married with children, for starters (and as another poster rightly says, he crashlanded as opposed to being sent) - and don't really have much of a plot going for them. The movie's all as silly as that episode where the boys befriended "Ann-Margrock" without knowing who she was.

Speaking of which, Ann-Margret (who guested on the TV show) returns to Bedrock to sing "Viva Rock Vegas" in a montage and over the credits, but her take isn't a patch on the BC-52's version of the theme song in the first one, and indeed the overall feeling of going down a level is everywhere - not just in the plot of Wilma's mum wanting her daughter (a miscast Kristen Johnston) to marry an uppercrust type (Thomas Gibson from "Dharma & Greg"), but from the cast to the visual effects (Rhythm & Hues aren't quite up to Industrial Light & Magic's level) to the music (song-wise, that is; David Newman at least tries), the movie fits in all too well alongside the other losers directed by Brian Levant, he of "Problem Child" and "Jingle All The Way" infamy. And I still think James Belushi, not John Goodman or Mark Addy, IS Fred Flintstone.

At least the first one had Halle Berry and some puns in the credits (though this does have Jane Krakowski - hubba hubba). And no Joan Collins...

This movie makes an awkward attempt to stay faithful to the spirit of the cartoon. It has moments, but far too few of them.

The few things done right first: Jane Krakowski makes a wonderful Betty; why couldn't she have been in the first movie? She makes the silly dialog somehow sweet and fun. The dating sequence is cute and the Vegas arrival scene has some clever sight gags, but these were fleeting montages. Harvey Korman is wasted in a throw-away role with few lines; instead of voicing Gazoo (as he did in the original cartoon), and the guy they use for Gazoo sounds like slate grinding on bedrock.

Joan Collins is obnoxious enough on her own; this movie has her play a wrenching stereotypical loudmouth mother-in-law who you want to feed to the nearest T-Rex you can find. And the guy that plays Barney? What the heck is he doing? His entire performance looked like a rejected audition for a junior high school production of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in Jurassic Park." Fred? The guy had a voice almost as nasally as Joan Collins. Wilma is cast as a 7-foot-tall giraffe. Fred goes gambling: Gee, what's gonna happen there? Fred and Barney dress up as dancers: they even manage to ruin this classic comedy routine. A poorly done triangle story falls flat.

This petrified fossil of a film does little justice to the Modern Stone-Aged Family. Rent some of the original cartoons, instead.