Remember That 1994 Movie Adaptation of The Flintstones? Probably Not And There's A Good Reason For That

The fifth biggest movie of 1994 was The Flinstones, a live-action adaptation of the animated TV show of the same name. Only four movies (Forrest Gump, The Lion King, True Lies and The Santa Clause) managed to make more cash than this Brian Levant directed project, yet today, The Flintstones has basically faded away from the pop culture landscape. Some of that can be attributed to how its cartoon source material has not been as heavily utilized as a source for merchandise and direct-to-video follow-up's as fellow Hanna-Barbera toons Scooby-Doo or Tom & Jerry, but it can also be chalked up to the fact that The Flintstones is just thoroughly forgettable fare.


The personalities of the principal Flinstones characters have been kept intact for their translation to the big screen, with Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) still being a loud-mouthed but good-natured fellow, Barney Rubble (Rick Moranis) being Fred's best buddy, Wilma Flintstone (Elizabeth Perkins) being the more thoughtful voice of reason to her husband Fred and Betty Rubble (Rosie O'Donnell) having a personality that begins and ends with her being the significant other of Barney. The plot all of these characters engage in is a very simple one, with Fred being promoted to a high-ranking position at his job so he can be the fall-man for an embezzlement scheme by Cliff Vandercave (Kyle MacLachlan).

Fred doesn't he's being set up as a patsy though so he just proceeds to enjoy the luxurious life as a rich guy, which increases his arrogance as Barney and Betty find themselves struggling to get by. This whole plotline is one we've all seen plenty of times before (High School Musical 2 would use it thirteen years after this Bedrock adventure) and The Flintstones gravest sin as a movie is not really adding any new wrinkles to this storyline or even just wringing some clever gags out of the storyline. Everyone just goes through the motions in executing this tired narrative, with nary a moment of inventiveness in the writing to help spruce things up.

A draining sense of predictability may be less grating than the lack of memorable jokes. The Flintstones tries very hard to be a quick-witted comedy but it just misses the mark way too often in executing its various jokes. Tired references to then modern life as well as overly obvious jokes litter the script, leaving moments meant to elicit hearty yuks from the viewer instead leaving one barely holding back a yawn. Kyle MacLachlan is the only one who's able to convey a sense of fun in the whole production, he seems to be having a blast playing this guy who revels in being a bureaucratic form of villainy.

Most of the other cast members are doing serviceable work here, especially John Goodman in pitch-perfect casting as Fred Flintstone, but too often it feels like everyone is just doing impressions of these characters, which gets tiring really quickly. You can't hang an entire movie on Rick Moranis doing a Barney Rubble voice, a time-honored axiom proven true by The Flintstones. Unless you're in the mood to watch a bunch of impressively realized sets and props be used at the service of a clunky script that fails far too often at its attempts at comedy, I'd suggest you Yabba-Dabba-Don't when it comes to watching The Flintstones. Maybe watching the fourth biggest movie of 1994 instead, The Santa Clause. It's not very good either, but at least it's frequently weird, which is far more interesting to watch.