I seem to be one of the few that enjoyed the original Flintstones movie. Therefore I was interested to see what the prequel - with a changed cast - would look like.
VIVA ROCK VEGAS, is a good idea. Plenty of chances for clever Vegas jokes - especially if you’ve been there and know the place quite well. The changed cast - WELL.... casting Brit Mark Addy as Fred Flinstone struck me as odd and I could not really see Kirsten Johnson (Sally Soloman from 3rd Rock) as a Wilma. The Rubbles were OK - but Rick Moranis WAS Barney in the first film!
Well, sometimes sequels/prequels to a film are fantastic. Now and then they are decent. And in others, sometimes they are just terrible. VIVA ROCK VEGAS is an example of the latter!
While there were maybe one or two amusing incidents in the movie, the majority of it was just awful - and don’t forget that’s coming from someone who went to the film with high hopes having enjoyed the original.
Maybe I was spoiled by the original cast. You can hardly beat John Goodman as the loud but lovable Fred. Seemed to me like Mark Addy just had to try a little too hard to fit the part. And although Stephen Baldwin was OK as Barney - He was NO Rick Moranis.
The whole story line was just not what I was expecting. I guess I was thinking of the Flintstones series episode where they all went to Rock Vegas. In any case, the last thing I expected to see was the story of the courtship between the Rubbles and the Flintstones. It was just too corny and contrived. Seemed to me like the majority of the movie didn’t revolve around Rock Vegas at all - more so it revolved around teenage dating in Bedrock.
Maybe I am too old to take this stuff so seriously, but I always loved the Flintstone bunch when I was a kid - and beyond and was pleasantly surprised by the way they came alive in Hollywood back in 1995. It was fun seeing the prehistoric era brought to life outside of the cartoon world. I figured this year’s version would be just as good. I found that not to be the case. I always liked Kirsten Johnson in ’’Third Rock from the Sun’’, but she just isn’t Wilma. I felt the actors were ALL trying to hard to play the parts in this version, where all the characters in the previous version were perfectly cast. It was just a terrible disappointment.
To us old fogies who were raised on the Flintstones, this year’s version of their antics was just a total disappointment. I wouldn’t put money on Flinstones 3.