'Viva' Doesn't Meet Flintstones' Full Potential

Movie Still Rocks In Parts, Sometimes Literally

If the new "Flintstones" prequel, "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas," has accomplished anything, it's that it constantly kept the stone-aged rendition of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" banging around in my head after I left the theater. Thankfully, the old and the "really old" versions of the song both rock. It's too bad that the movie that gave the tune a new life isn't quite as solid.

The purpose of the characters going further back in time for a "prequel" (the original feature bowed in 1994) really isn't for any earth-shattering reason. It's not a "Star Wars"-esque Anakin/Vader-like back story or anything. This movie simply establishes how Fred and Wilma Flintstone and Barney and Betty Rubble fell into each other's arms.

Apparently, though, the cast from the first movie -- John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis and Rosie O'Donnell -- didn't look young enough for the prequel (or there weren't enough clams to shell out for their return). With the exception of director Brian Levant returning to the helm, virtually nobody from the original film is present.

Fortunately, everyone in the new film is more than capable of rocking the house: "The Full Monty's" pudgy Mark Addy replaces Goodman as Fred; "Third Rock From the Sun's" Kristen Johnson is in for Perkins' Wilma; Stephen Baldwin replaces Moranis as Barney; and Jane Krakowski ("Ally McBeal") is the new Betty, taking over for O'Donnell.

The recasting for the film even trickled down to the secondary characters. Joan Collins, who's no doubt hoarding some fountain of youth somewhere, steps into the shoes of Liz Taylor, who did a cameo as Wilma's mom in the first film. Comic legend Harvey Korman (who lent his voice to "Dictabird" in the 1994 film) drops in occasionally too in this version, in hilarious bits as Wilma's out-of-touch father.

The movie starts in Bedrock, where unlucky-in-love bachelors Fred and Barney slog around their jobs at the local quarry. Their luck changes, though, at the infamous Bronto King drive-in, when Fred asks roller-waitress Betty O'Shale out on a date to the local carnival.

Fred manages to get a date for his pal Barney, too, with Betty's new best friend, Wilma Slaghoople. Fate immediately finds the couples falling in love with each other's dates, which provides the perfect setting for a pint-sized space alien named "The Great Gazoo," sent by his mothership to study earthlings' mating rituals.

Although love finds Fred's eyes and toes twinkling (remember his bowling technique?), things are about to change: Although she's letting on that she's led a life of hard knocks, Wilma reveals that she's really on the lam from her wealthy family. This leaves Fred, for lack of better words, between a rock and hard place, since he feels that his meager bronto-crane operator status at the quarry is not worthy of Wilma's attention.

But once he's convinced that the high society has accepted him, the couples accept an invitation to Rock Vegas as the guests of rich-boy Chip Rockefeller ("Dharma & Greg's" Thomas Gibson). But Rockefeller has a plan of his own: to ace out Fred and marry into ex-girlfriend Wilma's family fortune.

Oddly enough, "Viva Rock Vegas" is at its best when it's not in its cartoonish screwball comedy mode (which is obviously aimed at kids), but rather when it's a morality-tinged romantic comedy (which is obviously aimed at adults). Of course, that takes place in none other than the title location, the fictional sin city of Rock Vegas, home to such hotel casinos as the cleverly titled "Tar Dust" (tons of stone and rock references are plastered all over the movie). It's there where Fred's desire to please Wilma by winning the big dough -- exactly the quality that she doesn't want in her man -- naturally leads to disastrous results.

While "Viva Rock Vegas" showcases a bevy of entertaining computer-generated images and animatronic shots, they are, barring Alan Cumming's stunning alien getup, not necessarily groundbreaking. But no matter how impressed you are with the special effects, Fred and Wilma's pet, Dino, is hard to resist. His presence, like in the cartoon series, is infectious, even though chaos seems to follow him wherever he goes.

Perhaps the biggest fault of this particular live-action adaptation, or any well-known big-screen bit of TV culture, for that matter, is that most of the actors overcompensate by imitating their characters, rather than acting out the sounds and motions of their animated counterparts.

From a vocal standpoint, Addy and Baldwin no doubt do great Fred and Barney impersonations, but not to the point where audience members can immerse themselves in the characters. Maybe the voice theatrics won't make much of a difference to kids, but to adults who grew up with the TV show, it may be more of a distraction. With more than 400 CGI shots and animatronics to boot, the movie already has all the cartoon qualities it needs.

REAL AUDIO: "THE FLINTSTONES"

Hear clips from the movie's soundtrack. Sample from "(Meet) the Flintstones" Sample from "Viva Rock Vegas"

That's not to say that a person can't be in an animated movie and not be convincing enough (think Mike Myers as Austin Powers or Dr. Evil). In this particular movie, stage vet Cumming ("Cabaret") pulls off the delicate balancing act twice with the wonderfully funny yet surreal and creepy role of Gazoo and a stone-age sendup of a Mick Jagger character named Mick Jagged (having the Stones represented in the movie was a no-brainer). His whimsical contributions are refreshing to the storyline, if not the whole "Flintstones" experience.

While I have an aversion to the inappropriate use of pop music within a film (most often used to generate soundtrack sales), the "rock" music theme is perfect for "Viva Rock Vegas" (remember the BC-52s from the first film?).

Both Ann-Margaret and Cumming are solid with their new spins on "Viva Las Vegas," and every classic tune with the word "rock" in the title seems to pop up somewhere. But what makes the musical contributions complete is a pull-out-the-stops, good old-fashioned Hollywood "production numbah" of the Flintstones theme, "(Meet) The Flintstones," to conclude the movie. Making up for the shortcomings, the scene is a perfect way to wrap things up: It recalls a magical time in both the history of film and TV -- which only makes sense for something "prehistoric."

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