Deserves more credit than it gets
Could 1994’s “The Flintstones” be the best “Flintstones” movie we could have gotten? Opinions would definitely vary but if one thing is for certain the Steven Spielberg produced film is a testament to how the show worked on different levels. Being a kid at the time, watching the old cartoon on TV, I definitely think I interacted more with it on the visual level in the way it combined the stone and modern age. As an adult, I won’t say that also doesn’t appeal but I also get that the show was also trying to be more of an adult satire of blue collar, everyday concerns. This was back when Hollywood tried to turn every sitcom it could into a feature length film and “The Flintstones” definitely falls into many of the same traps many others did but it also does quite a few things very right.
It’s a delightful film just to look at and imagine yourself in. The stone-age suburbia looks more like a theme park attraction, which just heightens the appeal, and the clunky cars, caveman apparel, and department stores, restaurants, ect all created from rock bring the cartoon to life, while the wonky special effects keep it all grounded in its fantasy roots.
The cast is also terrific with John Goodman particularly getting Fred’s dunderheaded pride, gullibility and well-meaning good heart. Rick Moranis is a sweet innocent as the hapless Barney, Elizabeth Perkins gets Wilma’s maternal voice of reason, and Rosie O’Donnell, while not exactly the right body type for Betty, gets the voice, and particularly the giggle, just right.
The movie is a series of bad puns and barefoot jokes that never exactly land and i’m pretty sure at least some of it is the point. Much of it is there to laugh at the cheese and the fact that it took 32 writers to come up with all these jokes makes it all the cheesier. In between the Roc Donalds, BC-52’s rock bands, and stone tablet newspaper headlines jokes is some better stuff- I enjoyed how Goodman and Elizabeth Taylor (playing his mother in law) snipe at each other, the interplay between Goodman and Perkins, and the stone age version of garbage disposals and alarm clocks.
The plot concerning Fred winning a promotion to become a Senior VP of Slate and Co., only to realize it’s far less than what it’s cracked up to be, at the very least feels akin to something an old episode of the show would possibly be about. Only thing is while an episode is 20 minutes long, this tries for 90 and in that the weightless story struggles to keep steam going and so do the jokes.
It’s the simpler pleasures that hold it all together- Halle Berry as a sexy secretary named Sharon Stone, Kyle MacLachlan hamming it up as the cartoonish villain. In the end it may be small potatoes but the invention of the visuals is a wonderful reason to see this, as are the portrayals by the cast and the interplay between them. It’s been made lovingly in the spirit of the old TV show, for better or for worse.