The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

When both Flintstone movies came out, my daughter wanted to see them, so we did. I was not especially impressed by the films...but I thought they weren't bad. Well, apparently I am not the typical viewer, as both films (especially "Viva Rock Vegas") have very low scores on IMDB...and "Viva Rock Vegas" now made the Bottom 100 list following the recent changes to this list (increasing the minimum number of votes greatly impacted the list....and about 2/3 of the films are new to the list). Because of this change, I decided to try seeing the film again....and perhaps I was mistaken the first time.

The first thing you'll notice is that although the look of the film is great (much like the first film), all the principal actors are different. Apparently, the studio had a hard time getting the old actors to commit to the film...so to try to get around this, the movie is supposed to be a prequel which occurred long before the Spielberg film.

When the story begins, Gazoo is being punished for some unknown mistakes. His punishment is to be banished to Earth to observe human mating rituals. Not surprisingly, he picks Fred and Barney to follow...as the boys have not yet met Betty and Wilma. Once they do, they all fall in love but it doesn't go THAT smoothly. First, Wilma comes from a rich and snooty family...and they have no interest in low-brow Fred. Second, Wilma's old boyfriend invites the four of them to Rock Vegas....and he obviously has some underhanded scheme in mind for them. Third, once in Rock Vegas, Betty mistakenly thinks Barney is chasing another woman and she ends up being one of Mick Jagged's entourage.

So was I wrong the first time? I don't think so. While the film isn't exactly brilliant, it is what it is supposed to be...a live action version of a cartoon...no more, no less. And, despite me not seeing it with my daughter this time, I had a fine time watching the film. Pleasant and adequate...and not at all deserving all the hate it's received. Believe me...there are many, many, many worse kids films, such as "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", "Baby Geniuses" (1 and 2), "Son of the Mask" and most of the "Land Before Time" films (they made 14 of them!!!). Don't be afraid to buck conventional wisdom, as I think this film is enjoyable and a decent story to watch with your kids.

I saw the 1994 live action "Flintstones" movie on video for the second time in 2000, about 4 ½ years after I first saw it, and thought it was great during my second viewing. That was shortly after this prequel, featuring a different cast, came to the silver screen, and I remember hearing about this film around that time. Since I was not nearly as impressed during my last couple viewings of 1994's "The Flintstones" (both many years after my second), I was in no hurry to see "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas", especially since I knew it had an even worse reputation than its predecessor. It's been over 2 ½ years since I last saw the first live action "Flintstones" effort, and I've finally seen this second one, which is unsurprisingly not good.

The Great Gazoo is an alien who is sent to Earth by his species to learn about human mating rituals. Back on Earth, in the prehistoric town of Bedrock, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble are two best friends who are both in search of girlfriends. They are the first ones Gazoo sees after he lands on the planet, so he decides to follow them around, even though he annoys them. Meanwhile, a rich young woman named Wilma Slaghoople is fed up with the snobbish people around her, especially her mother, and runs away. She goes to a restaurant and meets a waitress named Betty O'Shale, and they quickly become friends. Fred and Barney go to this restaurant and meet the two women. Fred gets a date with Betty and Barney gets one with Wilma. When the four of them go out together, Fred and Barney end up swapping girlfriends, but both of them are successful with their romance. Both couples are invited by Chip Rockefeller, Wilma's rich and arrogant ex-boyfriend, to his resort in Rock Vegas, but what they don't realize is that this is just a cruel scheme for Chip to win Wilma back!

The main problem with the 1994 film is that it simply isn't funny, and that's most certainly a major issue with this prequel as well. The only part of this film I couldn't keep a straight face while watching was the "I'm ignoring you" part. There's one memorably lame moment with a farting dinosaur, and most of the other gags are just mediocre. I was also not impressed with many of the performances here. Mark Addy may not be bad as Fred, and I guess Stephen Baldwin isn't that bad as Barney, though I definitely preferred Rick Moranis' portrayal of the character in the first film. These performances certainly aren't great, however, and I certainly didn't care for Kristen Johnston and Jane Krakowski as Wilma and Betty respectively. Also, Alan Cumming plays two characters, which are Gazoo and Mick Jagged (obviously based on real-life Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger), and both his performances fail, especially the former, I would say. At the beginning, showing Gazoo with other members of his species on a spaceship before he is sent to Earth, it already looks like this is going to be a very unfunny comedy movie, and unfortunately, that beginning sequence doesn't lie.

The first live action film adaptation of "The Flintstones" was a critical failure but a box office success, whereas "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas" was both a critical AND box office flop. After watching it, that doesn't surprise me. I can't really think of anything wrong with the 1994 release other than the absence of laughs, but I would say that REALLY brings it down if quality, since it is supposed to be a comedy. Just like its predecessor, this prequel failed to make me laugh even one time, but this second film of the two also has inferior cast performances, and maybe a slightly more boring plot as well (I'm not 100% sure about that, as it's been a while since I last watched the first film), which makes it even worse. I only found it a BIT worse than the 1994 film, and don't absolutely hate it like many others clearly do, but some could find it a LOT worse, including some of those who like the first film. If you don't like 1994's "The Flintstones", you probably wouldn't like this prequel. If you do like that movie, there's probably STILL a good chance you wouldn't like "Viva Rock Vegas".

"The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas" is one of the poorest excuses for a family film I've seen in a long time.

The original remake with John Goodman was at least decent, but this flop has not only an awful cast, but awful dialogue, filming techniques, jokes...it's straight out of a made-for-TV sequel. Only one thing: It's even worse.

In this live-action prequel to the 1994 comedy hit, Fred Flintstone (Mark Addy) and wife Wilma (Kristen Johnston) go to Rock Vegas along with the Rubbles, Barney (Stephen Baldwin) and Betty (Jane Krakowski), where Wilma is pursued by playboy Chip Rockefeller (Thomas Gibson). This is the setup for a bunch of tiring gags that also have to do with a little green space alien coming to earth to see how humans mate, or something as such.

This has to be one of the worst comedies I've seen it a while. It was actually painful for me to watch. There really are no redeeming values whatsoever, and I don't think I'd like it even if I was a five-year-old. It treats the audience like dirt, and it obviously seeing if there's any juice left in the audience to pay for another "Flintstone" flick.

Instead of trying to improve upon the first film--which was a bit underrated--this film seems to go for the bare minimum in an effort only to draw money from the audience. I have to ask myself, if they knew the first was so critically-declaimed, why release another awful flick? Try to improve and get good reviews.

But nope, no luck here. Instead we are treated to a truly awful and hard-to-watch comedy with no redeeming values whatsoever.

Avoid at all costs.

0.5/5 stars--

John Ulmer

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.

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.