The Flintstones

The Flintstones (1994)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Brian Levant

Starring: John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis, Rosie O'Donnell, Kyle MacLachlan

From: Universal

Yes, I saw this movie for the first time in more than 20 years. Sure, I watched the cartoon and enjoyed it (as long as it's not the version with the horrible laugh track) but even back then I did not love the film and now, it's only a 2 star affair. Alas... I talk about it below in my Letterboxd review:

ou know, I had been watching too many great movies as of late...

Tuesday night I was wondering what I should watch; as typical I had too many choices so it was a difficult choice; I looked on Netflix to see if they had up anything new. Suddenly I noticed that they had this movie up; when it came out in '94 a parent took me and my two sisters to go see it. At the time I was mostly nonplussed by it... even at 13 years old, a plot about corporate embezzlement did not light my ass on fire... not to mention some of the harsh things that happen to the main characters. Maybe I saw it once on VHS after it came out but otherwise this is yet another movie I hadn't seen in at least 20 years.

Like I said, the plot is about corporate embezzlement involving Kyle MacLachlan and Halle Berry (playing someone named Sharon Stone; yes, that's the “joke”) and Fred is a dumbass so he all too easily gets wrapped up in their scheme and he ends up being the patsy. Somehow, it allegedly took THIRTY-TWO writers to come up with this script; at the time it sounds especially absurd. Now, what I have heard of modern movies, too many require too many rewrites and who knows how many are involved with that. As for the script... the visuals and look of the movie do match the cartoon rather well...

I can't fault the cast as the lead roles were filled by the appropriate actors who looked and acted the part. There are chuckles sprinkled throughout. Yet, the script and story aren't great (it's one of those deals where things would have been resolved much sooner if one person had told the other something important, and yet waited to do so because the script said so) so I can't give this more than a 2 star rating.