Director: Brian Levant
Writer: Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont, Jim Cash, Jack Epp Jr (Screenplay)
Starring: Mark Addy, Stephen Baldwin, Kristen Johnston, Jane Krakowski, Joan Collins, Thomas Gibson, Alan Cumming
Plot: In this live-action prequel to the 1994 comedy hit, the Flintstones and the Rubbles go on a trip to Rock Vegas, where Wilma is pursued by playboy Chip Rockefeller.
Tagline – Get ready to rock!
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Not On the Same Level
Story: The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas starts with Fred (Addy) and Barney (Baldwin) graduate into employment and head out to celebrate. Wilma (Johnston) is looking to escape her life from the rich friends and family she has lived in and finds herself meeting waitress Betty (Krakowski) becoming friends.
When the two friends meet they fall in love with Wilma’s past family being the rich gets the couples an invite to Rock Vegas for a holiday of a lifetime.
Thoughts on The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
Characters – Fred Flintstone is the working class citizen of Bedrock, he wants to meet a woman and he does meet Wilma, only to show us that he has a dark side when it comes to gambling. Barney is the bumbling best friend of Fred, which is strange because this time he is made out to be a bigger idiot than Fred. Wilma is escaping her life from the rich which leads her to Betty and then Fred while Betty is a waitress that falls in love with Barney. We don’t get the full character development we need for these characters this time around.
Performances – Mark Addy does fit the Fred Flintstone role well and to be honest the performances are not bad they just don’t have much to work with even if they do look the part more than the first cast.
Story – This is a prequel and looks at how the couples met, which is fine, but not something we needed to see, we know how this story is going to end which also takes away from the story because we know Fred and Wilma and Barney and Betty end up together, so any mistakes made along the way mean nothing. We also focus on the idea of trying to do too many parodies of modern times.
Comedy/Family/Romance – The comedy seem thicker than last time out, mostly because it comes too often with too many pop culture references which have dated badly, the family will struggle to enjoy this because there are not enough jokes for the older audience, with the romance being here working even if we know how it ends.
Settings – The look of Bedrock still looks great and the idea of Rock Vegas works for the fil showing the bigger idea the movie wanted to give us.
Special Effects – The practical effects do work for the film but when the CGI get used we see the short comings the film has.
Scene of the Movie – The Viva Rock Vegas number.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Playing a romance angle on characters we know get married.
Final Thoughts – This movie doesn’t hit on the same level as the first, the performances are fine, but the story just falls flat on its face.
Overall: Substandard sequel.
Rating
