The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas Reviews

A giant fartosaurus, Joan Collins doing a spit take, Mark Addy and Stephen Baldwin in showgirls' dresses. If you're laughing now, this second live-action spin-off from the popular Flintstones cartoon may well tickle your prehistoric funny bone. And if you've always wondered how two clever, sweet-natured, pretty girls like Wilma and Betty wound up with those boneheads Fred and Barney, it does provide an answer of sorts. Quarry workers Barney (Baldwin) and Fred (Addy) meet Betty O'Shale (Ally McBeal's Jane Krakowski) and Wilma Slaghoople (Kristen Johnston of 3rd Rock From the Sun) at a Bedrock burger joint; Betty is a bubbly waitress and poor little rich girl Wilma has run away from the prospect of a loveless marriage to smarmy, overextended millionaire Chip Rockefeller (Dharma & Greg's Thomas Gibson). Desperate to marry into the Slaghoople fortune, the scheming Chip offers the couples an all-expense-paid trip to his Rock Vegas casino hotel, planning all the while to get Wilma back. Let's say it right out: This brightly colored, lowbrow comedy is so dumb it could get lost on its way to the take-up reel, and it's proud to be dumb. But it's also clueless: Who makes a movie about dating aimed squarely at 10-year-olds? Sure, it's loaded with child-friendly sight gags involving googly-eyed dinosaurs and oversized props, but the goofy wordplay proceeds from a 40-year-old's frame of reference, starting with the title. How many preadolescent Elvis movie fans do you know? The best thing about it is the cast. Baldwin's moronic Barney is an acquired taste, but Krakowski is an adorable, sassy Betty, and Johnston brings an endearing coltishness to the sensible Wilma. And who'd have thought UK actor Addy, of THE FULL MONTY, would have made such a personable Fred, complete with spot-on American accent?