The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

USA 2000

Reviewed by Amanda Lipman

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

Bedrock, the Stone Age. Gazoo, an alien, is sent to earth to examine human mating rituals. He lands right by Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, both newly graduated from college and about to start work at the rock quarry. Wilma, dissatisfied with her vacuous, rich lifestyle, runs away from home and is taken in by Betty, a waitress at the Bronto King. The girls go out on a double date with Fred and Barney where Barney pairs off with Betty and Fred with Wilma.

Pressurised to do so by her mother, Wilma takes her friends home for her father's birthday party; there, they are ridiculed by her snobbish friends. They are invited to stay in the Rock Vegas hotel of her devious ex-boyfriend Chip Rockefeller who wants to win Wilma (and her money) back by shaming Fred. He lets Fred win a huge amount of money at the gaming tables only to make him lose it and then accuse him of stealing Wilma's jewellery. Meanwhile, Betty has spied Barney with Chip's female accomplice Roxie and goes off in a huff with the pop star Mick Jagged. Fred and Barney are arrested, but with the help of Gazoo, they escape from jail and win back Wilma and Betty.

Review

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas is the second live-action feature film based on the Hanna-Barbera-produced animation series which ran on US television from 1960 to 1966. Like the first movie The Flintstones (also directed by Brian Levant), there is something dispiriting about live actors playing characters who were originally two-dimensional cartoon figures. So it's a relief to see the addition of a new character, the alien Gazoo, providing a disdainful anthropological commentary on the human inhabitants of Bedrock at selected moments in Viva Rock Vegas. Played by Alan Cumming (who also plays the rock star Mick Jagged), Gazoo is a refreshing and ironic counterpoint to the film's flatly rendered cavemen heroes Fred and Barney, here seen before they settled down with wives Wilma and Betty.

This aside, it's largely business as usual. Sticking to the example set by the series and the first film, Viva Rock Vegas features plenty of gleeful crudity, not least in the endless rock puns - Rock Vegas, Bronto Rock, Melrock Place - most of which become tiresome pretty quickly. The Neanderthal retro chic that was the cartoon's lasting joke is made even more kitsch by the addition of designer vulgarity, provided by Joan Collins as Pearl, Wilma's mother. Draped in extravagant dresses, Collins vamps and camps her way through the film as if she were in an episode of Dynasty. Only her bare feet beneath the peacock dresses remind us of the stone-age setting. There is a more melancholy ring to the friendly dinosaurs, trained and tamed by people, that roam around unthreateningly, ostensibly as a sign of our symbiosis with animals, but also a perhaps unconscious reflection on our urge to subjugate.

The youthful Fred and Barney bring to mind the eponymous heroes of the Bill & Ted films. Affable but a little gormless, their brief moments of clarity are soon fogged by appeals to their childlike greed (Wilma's ex-boyfriend, the rich Chip Rockefeller, gets Fred into trouble by tempting him with huge winnings at the Rock Vegas gaming tables). But despite the fun the script has at their stupidity, there is a feeling that Fred and Barnie deserve to be winners. When they turn, in seconds, from dreamy adolescents to fully fledged adults desirous of marriage, we are supposed to believe in them. They are simple innocents, let loose in a corrupt world that they eventually get the better of, a world personified by the posh, too-clever-by-half Chip at one end and the ridiculously vain pop star Mick Jagged at the other. This is staple American dream stuff, where the ordinary working man triumphs, picking up a spot of good-natured ribbing on the way. It is harder, however, for contemporary audiences to understand why headstrong, intelligent Wilma, heroically turning her back on her frivolous upbringing, would opt for suburban bliss with Fred. As we all know from the television series, which caught up with Fred and Wilma in middle age, modern stone-age family life is hardly the most exciting of prospects.

Credits

Director
Brian Levant
Producer
Bruce Cohen
Screenplay
Deborah Kaplan
Harry Elfont
Jim Cash
Jack Epps Jr
Based on the animated series by Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc
Director of Photography
Jamie Anderson
Editor
Kent Beyda
Production Designer
Christopher Burian-Mohr
Music
David Newman
©Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc
Production Companies
Universal Pictures presents a Hanna-Barbera/Amblin Entertainment production
Executive Producers
William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Dennis E. Jones
Co-producer
Bart Brown
Production Associate
Jerry Schmitz
Production Co-ordinator
Jacqueline Popelka
Unit Production Managers
Dennis E. Jones
Alan Collis
Locations Manager
Allen Tinkley
Post-production Supervisor
Joan Kelley Bierman
2nd Unit Director
Bruce Cohen
Assistant Directors
Eric Heffron
Richard Oswald
David Riebel
Roberto Gonzalez-Rubio
Sharon Swab
2nd Unit:
Carla Brand Breitner
Marisa Ferrey
Script Supervisors
Jules Mann-Stewart
2nd Unit:
Heather Harris
Casting
Nancy Nayor
Associate:
Michelle Morris
2nd Unit Director of Photography
David Dunlap
Camera Operators
Russ McElhatton
Michael St. Hilaire
2nd Unit:
Bill Clevinger
Visual Effects
Producer:
Michael Muscal
Co-ordinator:
Justin Ritter
Special Visual Effects/ Creature Animation
Rhythm & Hues
CGI Remote Control Bird
Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Additional Visual Effects
Cinesite Hollywood
Perpetual Motion Pictures
Digital Visual Effects/Matte Painting
Metrolight Studios
Additional Visual Effects
Threshold Digital Research Labs
Special Effects
Co-ordinator:
Burt Dalton
Foremen:
Rodney Byrd
Albert Delgado
Bill Lee
2nd Unit:
Elia Popov
Glen Thomas
Head Puppeteer
David Barclay
Puppeteers
Kevin Carlson
Tom Fisher
Terri Hardin
Bruce Lanoil
Michelan Sisti
Allan Trautman
Additional Editor
Wilt Henderson
Supervising Art Director
Bradford Ricker
Set Designers
John Berger
Andrea Dopaso
Stephanie J. Gordon
Wil Hawkins
Bruce Hill
Gerald Sullivan
Bruce K. West
Set Decorator
Jan Pascale
Production Illustrators
Daren R. Dochterman
Jacques R. Rey
Robin Richesson
Illustrator
Ron Cochi
Storyboard Artist
Darryl Henley
Costume Designer
Robert Turturice
Costume Supervisor
Christopher Lawrence
Make-up
Department Head:
Christina Smith
Key:
Cynthia Barr-Bright
Artists:
Shontai Clark
Jane English
Heather Fraker
Jamie Kelman
Melanie Leavitt
Jeff Lewis
Brad Look
Christie Newquist
Nadege Schonfeld
Judith Silverman-Orr
Julie Steffes
Jeremy Swan
Jackie Tichenor
June Westmore
Monty Westmore
Gazoo/Alien Prosthetics
Matthew W. Mungle
Prosthetic Lab Work
Michael S. McCracken
Ryan T. McDowell
Clinton Wayne
Creature Effects
Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Hair
Department Head:
Barbara Lorenz
Key:
Jill Crosby
Shawn Mckay
Stylists:
Stephen Elsbree
Carolyn Ferguson
Karyn Huston
Kelly Kline
Peter Kulda
Yvonne Depatis Kupka
Jacklin Masteran
Barbara Minster
K.G. Ramsey
Steve Robinette
Gerald Solomon
Michael White
Title Design
Jay Johnson
Titles/Opticals
Pacific Title/Mirage
Music Orchestrator
Alexander Janko
Supervising Music Editor
Tom Villano
Music Scoring Mixer
John Kurlander
Soundtrack
"Viva Rock Vegas" performed by (1) Ann-Margret, (2) Alan Cumming; "This Isn't Love" - Mark Addy; "Rock This Town" - The Brian Setzer Orchestra; "Seven Nights to Rock" - Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit; "Half a Boy, Half a Man" - Nick Lowe; "You Get What You Give" - New Radicals; "(Meet) The Flintstones"; "Rise and Shine"
Choreography
Dorain Grusman
Sound Mixer
Ed Tise
Re-recording Mixers
Rick Kline
Chris Carpenter
Supervising Sound Editor
Mark Mangini
Supervising Dialogue Editor
Curt Schulkey
Dialogue Editor
Elliot Koretz
Sound Effects Editors
Richard Anderson
Eric Lindemann
Michael Schock
Michael Geisler
Howell Gibbens
ADR
Recordist:
Jeannette Browning
Mixer:
Doc Kane
Supervising Editor:
Curt Schulkey
Foley
Artists:
John Roesch
Hilda Hodges
Recordist:
Carolyn Tapp
Mixers:
Mary Jo Lang
Marilyn Graf
Editor:
Solange Schwalbe
Stunt Co-ordinator
Joel Kramer
Cast
Mark Addy
Fred Flintstone
Stephen Baldwin
Barney Rubble
Kristen Johnston
Wilma Slaghoople
Jane Krakowski
Betty O'Shale
Thomas Gibson
Chip Rockefeller
Alan Cumming
Gazoo/Mick Jagged
Harvey Korman
Colonel Slaghoople
Joan Collins
Pearl Slaghoople
Alex Meneses
Roxie
John Taylor
Keith Rockhard
Tony Longo
Big Rocko
Danny Woodburn
Little Rocko
Taylor Negron
Gazaam/Gazing
Jack McGee
David Jean-Thomas
bronto crane examiners
Brian Coughlin
bronto crane worker
Richard Karron
bronto crane
Gary Epp
Dean Agate
Jennifer Simard
bride-to-be
Heather McClurg
tennis girl
Chene Lawson
Kitty
John Cho
parking valet
Nora Burns
Mark Kubr
party guests
Cheryl Holdridge-Post
Genvieve
Buck Kartalian
old man at Bronto King
Matt Griesser
booth worker
Irwin Keyes
Joe Rockhead
Mary Jo Smith
gambler woman
Duane Davis
goon
Kevin Grevioux
associate goon
Steven Schirripa
croupier
John Wills Martin
casino security guard
Lucille M. Oliver
hotel worker
Joel Virgil Vierset
keyboard player
John Prosky
Rachel Winfree
Ted Rooney
Jim Doughan
confessors
Jason Kravitz
choreographer
John Stephenson
showroom announcer
Brian Mahoney
audience man
Ann Martel Mahoney
audience woman
Walter Gertz
wedding minister
Beverly Sanders
photographer
Phil Buckman
Sidney
Mel Blanc
voice of puppy dino
Rosie O'Donnell
voice of octopus masseuse
Jennifer Arden
Jennifer Bachler
Tracie Burton
Teresa Chapman
Jacqueline Case
Betsy Chang
Darlene Dillinger
Kristen Dinsmore
Tracie Hendricks
Helena Hultberg
Katherine Miller
Jessica Page
Kim Timbers-Patteri
Cristal Williams
The Rockettes
William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
themselves (voice only)
Certificate
PG
Distributor
United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
8,162 feet
90 minutes 55 seconds
Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
Colour by
DeLuxe
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011