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The Flintstones - DTSRating:
Release Date: 24 September, 2002 Retail Price: $19.98 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
The Flintstones - DTS Reviews
Yabba Dabba DON'T!
I recently watched The Flintstones, a stone-studded masterpiece from 1994 and, though I can't say I was necessarily surprised by the execution, (I choose my words carefully) of the film, I was interested in the decision to even make such an ill-fated concept of a live action feature.
I mean are we, as the audience, truly to believe that John Goodman (no chiseled features here), Rick Moranis, Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O'Donnell, are actually Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty? Apparently the makers of Hollyrock's latest White Mastodon would have you suspend your disbelief in this regard. Goodman plays Fred more like Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden, on which the character of Fred Flintstone was obviously based. How's that for convoluted logic? Elizabeth Perkins walks through the role of Wilma with less affect than one of the animals in their animated appliances, ("It's a living"). Lost in her interpretation is the familiar read headed, alabaster skinned beauty with "eyes as black.........as frying pans?". And what about Betty? No offense to Ms. O'Donnell, who does an admirable job as Mrs. Rubble, (giggle and all) but is a far cry from the delightful "Betty Jean McBricker" we all love and who Wayne and Garth rated one of the top 10 babes of all time, ("Schwing!"). Rick Moranis mugs the camera shamelessly, cocking his mouth to one side in a desperate attempt to echo the graphic overbite of the original Barney Rubble, and to no avail. Alas, try as he might, Moranis never overcame the fact that his own human eyes have pupils. I won't even go into the supporting characters but, as I watched I felt somewhat embarrassed for the entire cast. I don't blame them. I just don't think that human beings should ever be required to emulate cartoon characters. It's not fair. Cartoons can convincingly do what live action can not.
And incidentally, if you're looking for a plot line, this one is a little on the boney side. Basically the gags are all hung on the very simple story structure of Fred being promoted to executive stature at the gravel pit, presumably because of his ineptitude, (sometimes art really does imitate life). He is then framed in an embezzlement scheme and somehow invents concrete which changes the course of human history. The end.
As far as the The Flintstones goes, those who loved the '60s T.V. program will probably be left stone cold by the movie. Gone is any of the character and warmth of the original series, (though, personally I feel it's been gone in the animation for many years). Alan Reed, Jean VanderPyl, Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet were "The Flintstones". There was a natural quality in their early performances that made the characters believable. This, combined with the design, timing, writing, music and style of the show is what made "The Flintstones" so immensely popular in it's first run. There was a comfortable unself-consciousness about the program that made it a genuine piece of Americana and a joy to watch over and over again. The movie , however, is about as self conscious as you can get with it's forced performances, cloying gags and practically extinct stone-age puns relentlessly coming at you like hurled boulders that hit you right between the eyes and then just lay there.
Sigh, Hollyrock. They just don't get it, do they?
Meet the Flintstones...
As a child, I enjoyed the Flinstones. Never for the story lines but rather for the visual gimmicks peppered throughout: The dino-powered appliances... the wooly mammoth shower spickets and the bird beak record needle... etc. As a kid, that stuff had my imagination running wild.
Fast-forward twenty plus years to this inevitable live action film! I wish I could be a kid again.
The plot is nothing short of annoyingly formulaic. But the gimmicks are wherever the film turns.
The bedrock casting is superb. John Goodman and Rick Moranis give great impersonations of Fred and Barney while Rosie O'Donnell and Elizabeth Perkins ARE Betty and Wilma. O'Donnell quite often steals scenes with her vocal stylings while Perkins reminds me why I always had a crush on Wilma.
Even with tremendous casting and yabadabadoo production values (courtesy of Steven Spielrock), the film does not capture the adult mind, even as some humor aims for them with sexual innuendo. This includes a knockout role by teary-eyed Oscar winner Halle Berry as sexy secretary Sharon Stone.
By the end of the film, you have had so much crammed in your face you don't care how it turns out. That weakness is probably the result of the rumored 32 screenwriters.
But the pre-teen dinosaur lover will dig the humor. Watch for several cameos including an over-the-top Elizabeth Taylor and the B-52s.
THE FLINSTONES was an expensive film and every dollar can be seen on the screen, but money obviously can't buy everything... "In Bedrock, twist, twist."
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