Movie Review: The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) seen on videocassette

Comedy: Some material may not be suitable for young children, violence and mature themes

This movie is a prequel to the 1994 “the Flintstones” and tells the classic story of how Fred and Wilma met and fell in love.

The movie opens with an alien named The Great Gazoo who plans to go to earth to find out what the earth’s mating rituals are. The scene then cuts to Wilma Slaghoople, (played by Kristen Johnson,) who lives with her parents in a mansion as her parents are very affluent. When Wilma tells them one day that she wants to live an average lifestyle as opposed to the one her parents live, (with servants and nice clothing a lot of money, etc) her mother disapproves as they had raised her to live the affluent lifestyle. This sparks an argument which eventually leads to Wilma leaving her parent’s house to live on her own.

Sometime later, Wilma finds herself at a fast food restaurant where she meets a waitress named Betty O’Shale, (played by Jane Krakowski.) As Wilma is broke and homeless, she orders herself two glasses of water upon hearing that they are free. When Betty offers her a hamburger, Wilma says that she is ok with just water and Betty says that Wilma can just run home and grab her wallet to pay her later. When Wilma responds that she cannot pay her, Betty finds out that Wilma is homeless and offers to take her in and buy her the burger. She gets Wilma set up at her house which the two of them share.

Meanwhile, Fred Flintstone, (played by Mark Addy,) is a down on his luck bachelor who has just lost his job at the quarry along with his friend Barney, (played by Stephen Baldwin.) Barney tells Fred that things can only get better from here as they are both seen to have lost their job, money, and neither one of them have women.

That night, Fred and Barney go to the fast food restaurant, where Betty has gotten Wilma a job working there.. When Betty takes their order, she asks if Fred wants a date, while Barney motions that he would like a date too.

The scene then cuts to the two men courting Wilma and Betty, with Wilma being with Barney and Fred being with Betty. However, after Fred teaches Wilma how to bowl, the two men switch dates when Barney becomes smitten with Betty’s laugh. She offers to take him back to her house for breakfast, leaving Fred and Wilma alone together where the two bond and spend more and more time together while at a carnival.

A few days later, Wilma returns home for a special dinner held by her father, Colonel Slaghoople, (his first name is never mentioned in the movie,) where Chip Rockefeller, (played by Thomas Gibson,) has been hired by the couple. As he is making his speech, Fred’s dog Dino, (who is made to look like a dinosaur with dog like mannerisms,) comes in the house and runs over the table knocking most of the food and the table over in the process. As Wilma’s mother had already disapproved of Fred prior to this occurring, it didn’t help matters for him with Dino’s involvement and the four of them are escorted out after Wilma defends Fred’s behaviour.

After Chip complains that the behaviour of everyone during the dinner was inappropriate in the presence of not only him but Wilma’s family, Chip offers to fly the four of them to his casino in Viva Rock Vegas in the hopes of winning Wilma for himself.

As they arrive, Fred and Barney immediately start gambling with Betty and Wilma in tow. As Chip’s plan was to get Fred to lose all of his money so will choose him over, he is dismayed when Fred keeps winning. However, this all changes when Chip somehow rigs the games so that Fred will always lose by pushing a lever that says “Win” down to where the lever says “lose.” This occurred after Wilma and Fred had an argument over the lack of time Fred has spent with her while on the vacation in favour of gambling.

Fred’s losing ways begin when he loses his last coin for the slot machine after it is sucked up by a vacuum. He then tries his luck numerous times with the roulette wheel and ends up losing multiple times. After obtaining a coin for the slot machine, he plays it only to lose that as well.

When Chip devises a plan to have his girlfriend seduce Barney to distract him to allow Fred to keep gambling, Betty catches the two of them together being flirtatious with one another at the hotel buffet causing Betty to be mad at Barney. After being spotted by Mick Jagger, (who is scheduled to perform that night,) he agrees to go out with her and assures her that he will not go out with anyone but her, thus winning her heart.

Meanwhile, Chip has offered to put Wilma’s pearl necklace in the hotel safe which she has agreed to. In the midst of an argument with Fred, Chip plants the necklace in Fred’s pocket which is unknown by Wilma. The robbery sets off an alarm, (which is represented by the screech of a dinosaur,) where Chip reveals that the necklace was stolen and forces the culprit to come forward so he can have him arrested. Though Fred tells Wilma he did not take it, he pulls it out of his pocket and is arrested for stealing it. This upsets Wilma who breaks up with him instantly in favour of Chip. When Barney tries to defend Fred, he is seen as an accomplice to the crime and the two are thrown in jail as a result.

The two men must now come to terms with reality and realize they may never see their women again. As both men cry, Barney realizes he is short enough to fit through the bars of the locked cell and grabs the keys to free both himself and Fred from the cell while the cell guard is asleep.

Upon their release, Barney and Fred find Betty in the hotel room with Mick Jagger where he and Barney come to blows with each other, which Barney wins after knocking out Mick Jagger. When Barney comes clean about what really happened between him and the showgirl, he tells her that she is Chip’s girlfriend, to which Betty replies that they must tell Wilma soon, (as she is dating him at this point.) Fred assures her he will handle the situation.

Wilma and Chip are seen sitting at a table in anticipation of Mick Jagger’s performance. As the performance begins, Wilma notices Fred dressed in Mick Jagger’s uniform. He then sings one of Mick Jagger’s songs to her, approaching the table her and Chip are sitting at in the process. Fred says he knows he’s been stupid and that he can never give her the novelty items she deserves such as fancy cars and big houses. He says that all he can give her is the love in his heart. He then asks her to marry him, which she accepts. As a result, Fred uttered his new catch phrase for the first time “Yabba Dabba Doo!”

The film ends with most of the characters, (aside from Chip who was presumably in jail,) singing the Flintstones theme song with a mashup provided by Mick Jagger himself. Wilma is seen throwing the bouquet which is caught by Betty and the four of them drive off together in a car with fireworks in the background and the Flintstones song ending with “We’ll have a gay old time.”

The wedding is then shown between Fred and Wilma as the credits roll.

Though I have only seen this movie one time after it’s release, I felt it was necessary to do a review on it as I have always been a fan of the Flintstones movies. Having said that, I feel like the plot could have been a little different since there was another Flintstones movie made in 1994, (hence before this one came out as this one was in the year 2000,) where Fred and Wilma were already married. To me, it would have made more sense to have the 1994 version of this movie detail how Fred and Wilma got together, therefore making the 2000 version a sequel to the 1994 film. If they would have gone this route, the plot could have been roughly the same, maybe with Fred and Wilma and Barney and Betty planning a trip together to Viva Rock Vegas. Chip still could have been the villain of the movie. It just doesn’t make sense to me that they would have the earlier film show Fred and Wilma as a married couple and then show them as just beginning to date in this film. The timeline is basically backwards to what would make sense.

Another route they could have gone with this movie is to have Fred and Wilma and Barney and Betty telling Pebbles and Bamm Bamm the story of how they met. The movie could have been exactly the same with the end scene showing Wilma, Fred, Barney and Betty sitting on the couch with the children. The end of the film would coincide with the end of the story with the couples telling the children, “And that’s the story of how we met,” hence making it known to the audience that the entire movie was a story being told as the credits roll.

Having said that, I think this was a great film otherwise as I have been a fan of the franchise for most of my adult life. I would definitely recommend this movie.

Movie rating: 7 out of 10 for the issue with the timeline in the movie as I explained above.

Despite that flaw, it was a great movie