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"THE FLINTSTONES" (1994) (John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins) (PG) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Moderate Mild Heavy *Mild Minor Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Moderate None Moderate None Minor Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Moderate Minor Moderate Moderate *Moderate QUICK TAKE: Live-action Comedy: Fred Flintstone is promoted to an executive position within the Slate Rock and Gravel Company by an unscrupulous con artist looking to embezzle lots of money from the company's coffers, requiring someone to blindly take the fall for his actions. PLOT: Fred Flintstone (JOHN GOODMAN) is a devoted husband to Wilma (ELIZABETH PERKINS) and father to Pebbles (ELAINE SILVER AND MELANIE SILVER), and a fine friend to Barney Rubble (RICK MORANIS), having recently given a sizable amount of money to him and Betty (ROSIE O'DONNELL) so they can adopt a kid. But he wants to be someone, more than he is now. He gets his chance when Cliff Vandercave (KYLE MACLACHLAN), a vice president at Slate Rock & Gravel Company, announces a test to determine who will be the next executive at the company. Barney, grateful for what Fred has done for him and Betty, switches his and Fred's test after the exam is over, and Fred becomes the new executive, living the rich life, and finally being someone. But Cliff's scheme, with his associate Miss Stone (HALLE BERRY), is to embezzle money from the company, but make it look like someone else did the deed. That's the position Fred's in, but he doesn't know it right away. And the Flintstones' friendship with the Rubbles is also strained by their newfound riches. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? Most likely, if only to see the animated TV series as live-action with various actors playing the iconic roles and animals used as appliances. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG For some mild innuendos. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: JOHN GOODMAN plays Fred Flintstone, devoted husband and father and great friend to Barney Rubble, having given him a sizable amount of money in order to adopt his kid. However, he has a dream of becoming someone big and he gets that chance when he apparently got the high score in a test given to determine who the next executive will be at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company. Little does he know that he's being set up as the fall guy for a scheming executive planning to embezzle the company out of a lot of its money. Fred drinks and also exhibits a bad attitude toward his mother-in-law as well as Wilma when she plans to leave him because of the trouble that he's caused. ELIZABETH PERKINS plays Wilma Flintstone, wife to Fred and the sensible one in the family, whom Fred needs more than he thinks, even when he boasts to Barney that he makes the decisions in his cave and he's not going to be told what to do. She keeps him at ground level, but later gets caught up in the charmed life of being rich when Fred's made a vice president at the Slate Rock & Gravel Company, at the expense of their friendship with Betty and Barney Rubble. Unlike Fred until it's absolutely necessary, she realizes the hurt she's caused long before Fred's done and leaves him to go back to her mother for a time. She shows some cleavage and leg with some of the outfits she wears. RICK MORANIS plays Barney Rubble, grateful to Fred for the money he gave him and Betty to adopt a kid, who turns out to be a terror at the start, but improves later on. For Fred's actions, Barney switches tests with him during an exam to determine who will be the next executive at the company, and as the story is seen, avoids what Fred is going through. He though doesn't avoid the brunt of what Fred and Wilma do, in treating him and Betty like servants when they become rich, which Barney doesn't like at all, especially since Fred was forced by his boss to fire him and Barney's trying every job possible just to keep on living. ROSIE O'DONNELL plays Betty Rubble, equally excited about the kid she and Barney are going to adopt. Her friendship with Wilma is as tight as Barney's with Fred, though it becomes incredibly strained after Fred and Wilma become rich and treat them like servants. Even though Barney insists that they shouldn't talk to the Flintstones anymore, Betty comes to Wilma's aid later on. KYLE MACLACHLAN plays Cliff Vandercave, a vice president at the company and a con artist, and it is suggested by his associate, Miss Stone, that he lied on his resume to get into this position of power. Because it would look bad for him to be caught embezzling money from the company, he decides to find a fall guy that will take the blame so he can live with his money in Rocapulco. He administers an exam designed to find the next executive for the company and Fred Flintstone is that executive. Cliff belittles Fred in many ways, including insulting his intelligence---though Fred doesn't know it---and shows contempt for the men who work in the quarry. He drinks once and uses a weapon. HALLE BERRY plays Miss Stone, Cliff's partner in crime, who also poses as Fred's personal secretary when he's elevated to his own office with his own nameplate. She fully supports Cliff's plan, but later begins to turn against it. She shows much cleavage and some leg with her outfits and makes innuendoes toward Fred about her position in working for him. ELIZABETH TAYLOR plays Pearl Slaghoople, Wilma's mother and Fred's mother-in-law. She's enormously critical of Fred's ability to take care of Wilma and Fred despises her just the same and a scene between them includes many insults. DANN FLOREK plays Mr. Slate, the head of the company who is initially hesitant about Cliff's plan for modernization which would eliminate the need for the men in the quarry, but when told that his income would quadruple, he doesn't mind the men being let go. ELAINE SILVER and MELANIE SILVER play Pebbles Flintstone, the young daughter of Fred and Wilma. HLYNUR SIGUROSSON and MARINO SIGUROSSON play Bamm-Bamm Rubble, the adopted son of Barney and Betty, who causes a lot of damage at first, as he's unfamiliar with them and doesn't like what they're doing to him, such as cleaning him up. He smashes through a wall and also breaks china. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: The following is a brief summary of the content found in this PG-rated comedy. Profanity consists of a minor expletive. Some suggestive content/behavior and innuendos are present, as are various outfits that show cleavage and leg. Some behavior may be enticing for younger kids to imitate, including comedy-based action and physical contact (which make up the violent content), while one scene involves kids a perilous predicament. One character smokes and others drink in several scenes, and various bad attitudes are also present, as is some tense family material. If you're still concerned about the film and its appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home who may be interested in seeing it, we suggest that you take a closer look at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE Miss Stone pours a martini for Cliff and places an oversized onion in it. A moment later, she swirls a finger around in the drink and then puts it in her mouth. Cliff drinks from his martini glass. A woman at the bowling alley holds a beer mug and another woman drinks from a glass. Two guys at the bowling alley clap slowly with bottles in hand. Fred asks Barney, "Care to join me in a cold one?" and he and Barney and the other members of the Water Buffaloes dunk their heads into a rock vat of "lava juice." They howl after dunking their heads in and then do it again. Fred looks at the woman standing over him with blurred vision (after a bowling ball accidentally hits his head), and Pearl Slaghoople says, "Look at him. Drunk as a skunkosaurus." Fred drinks from two cups with umbrellas in them and hands one to Barney. Barney walks over to Fred with two bottles, saying, "Hey Freddie, a couple of cool ones." They take the corks out of the bottles with their mouths and spit them to the side. Later, Fred drinks twice from his bottle, the first time longer than the second. One of the members of the BC-52s tells the crowd, "Don't drink and pedal." Fred says to Wilma and Betty, "Well, while we're waiting, how about another carafe of bubbly?" A few drinks are seen at the bar of Cavern on the Green. BLOOD/GORE Fred reaches into the throat of the boar garbage disposal, which has waste liquid of some kind around its mouth. He pulls a bent fork out of its mouth and it burps a little. Wiping his hands, he notices his bare wrist and tells the disposal to "spit it out," and it belches, spitting up Fred's watch. A frog belches as it receives the golf ball Cliff hit in, and also as it spits the ball out. A flying Pterodactyl farts offscreen and ejects liquid cement-colored waste onto two cars. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Cliff Vandercave, a vice president at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company, does not work there for the good of what can be done for Bedrock and perhaps neighboring suburbs, by the company's actions. Instead, having gotten there by apparently lying on his resume, as suggested by his secretary Miss Stone, he is looking to embezzle lots of money from the company, but needs someone to take the fall for him so he can escape to Rocapulco and live out his days very rich. He finds Fred Flintstone, after Fred scores the highest on a test proctored by Cliff (in actuality, Barney switched tests with Fred after it was over, grateful for what he did for him earlier), and quickly gives him his own office and Miss Stone as his personal secretary, and Fred soon begins living the high life, with Wilma very happy too. When Cliff makes his appearances, he belittles the men in the quarry, as well as Fred, believing him to be very stupid. He also forces Fred to fire Barney, and counting on Fred not reading anything that he signs, he also has Fred fire all the men at the quarry without knowing it. And when things become desperate for him, he puts Fred's daughter Pebbles and the Rubbles' adopted son Bamm-Bamm in danger, in exchange for something he wants from Fred. On the way home from work, Fred reveals to Barney that he's not yet told Wilma about the money he gave to him and Betty to adopt a kid. When Barney notes the trouble that might come because of that, Fred replies, "I don't need permission from my wife to make a decision. In my cave, I reign supreme!" Wilma remarks that Betty and Barney's new kid looks precious and Fred whispers back, "Precious? They'd have been better off with the monkey." Fred says to Wilma about his mother-in-law, "What's that old fossil doing here? Did the tar pits back up again?" Throughout their contentious scene, Fred and Pearl trade insults and Fred asks Wilma for his club at one point. Pearl also bemoans Wilma's choice of a mate, saying that she could have married better. Cliff arrives at the quarry lunch tables to make an announcement and Barney asks, "Did you find out why all the guys in pit six are losing their hair?" Cliff replies irreverently, "Yes! And we are currently in the process of refuting the results of that investigation." Pearl says to Barney, "Take a hike, shorty." Mr. Slate is against laying off workers in favor of modernization, but after Cliff suggests that modernization could quadruple his income, Slate doesn't mind. Fred asks Barney, "You like your steak rare?" Barney answers in the affirmative and Fred replies, "That one is yours," pointing to Dino, who has a steak in his mouth, and Barney runs after Dino. As Barney's attempts to get the steak are heard, Fred yells out, "Hey Barn! Don't forget to wash that off before you eat it!" A kid shoots a spit rock at Barney, who's working at a Chevron station and Barney can't do anything about it. Fred and Wilma treat Betty and Barney as servants, with Wilma asking Betty for a towel as she's exercising with a personal trainer, and Barney mows the lawn. The Dicta-Bird mentions that Fred hates his "bird guts" and he thinks Fred is "dumber than mud," but tries to pass on advice that "only an idiot signs something before reading it." Fred tells the Dicta-Bird, "If I want advice from office equipment, I'll ask the watercooler!" He pulls out the pink slab the bird's standing on and it falls off. Fred is surprised at Barney working as a busboy at Cavern on the Green and Betty says, "It's honest work." Barney says, "Yeah, I don't have to fight Dino for my supper," continuing with how the Flintstones have mistreated the Rubbles since becoming rich. Fred says, "See Wilma, and you were worried he'd never find a job and we'd be stuck with him forever." Wilma kicks Fred under the table, since Betty is there with them. Fred fights with Barney and Wilma fights with Betty in the restaurant, trading accusations and insults. Wilma tries to get Betty and Barney to stay, and says, "We all said things that we didn't mean," and Fred replies from behind a newspaper slab, "Speak for yourself." Wilma asks Fred if he's even "the least bit sorry," and Fred says, "Sure, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever met the little moocher." However, Fred's ego gets the best of him in that situation, because from behind the newspaper, he looks at the Rubbles departing with worried eyes. After Wilma's made a mess of the material things in the house, saying that she doesn't need everything they have more than the Rubbles, Fred announces, "Oh, you're gonna regret this, Wilma. It's gonna take you hours to clean up this mess." Fred walks over a tied-up Pearl to untie Dino. When Fred tries to think of a way to save the kids, his mind flashes on a dinosaur chomping on Pearl. FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence" and below may be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to younger viewers, but probably few others. A loud roar is heard at the town square in Bedrock and there's screaming, people running, and a guy shouts "Pterodactyl alert!" The shadow of it is seen flying, and it then farts offscreen, ejecting liquid cement-colored waste onto two cars. A dinosaur roars at the Rubbles, because Betty inadvertently took eggs belonging to it. The kids are imperiled by a machine designed to chop rocks in half, shape them and make construction of suburbia a lot easier. GUNS/WEAPONS Three-barreled rock gun/round boulder: Used to threaten and attempt to wound. See "Violence" for more details. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "Come on, you lazy Cro-Magnon," "Yabba-dabba-doo!" "Su-preme!" "Bamm-bamm!" "Byesie-bye," "This job sucks," "Yabba-dabba-dabba-doo!" "Daddy pretty," "Oy," "Take a hike, shorty," and "Son of a brachiosaurus." Fred and Barney do some dance moves in their car to a song called "The Twitch." Later, at Cavern on the Green, the BC-52s, sing the same song and dance to it, as does their audience. Fred playfully grabs Barney's head with his arm and squeezes until Barney calls out "Uncle!" Some of Bamm-Bamm's destructive actions may be tempting for younger kids to imitate. The Water Buffaloes' victory cheer may be tempting for some kids to imitate. The Water Buffaloes howl after dunking their heads in the lava juice, and then dunk their heads in again. Away from Fred and Barney, we see that Bamm-Bamm has pushed Pebbles on the swing so high, that it swings upside down over the pole again and again. Barney pulls a tablecloth out from under glasses, dishes and menus, and nothing moves. Wilma pushes down a lamp, the TV set, and flings dishes and breaks cups, saying to Fred that she doesn't need all the material items more than she needs the Rubbles. Mr. Slate shouts "Flintstone!", elongating the "stone" part. A kid shoots a spit rock at Barney, who's working at a Chevron station. JUMP SCENES None MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) A moderate amount of suspenseful music occurs in the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None PROFANITY At least 1 damn. SEX/NUDITY Some men in the quarry are bare-chested. About his day, Fred says to Wilma, "I think my Brontocrane's pregnant again. I tell ya, you forget to lock her up one Saturday night…" Bamm-Bamm runs nearly naked across the street, with a lettuce leaf covering his private parts. One of the women walking into the Bowl-O-Rama wears a short skirt. Cliff looks at a magazine slab called "Go," and the chiseled photo seen is of a woman in a beach chair, in a yellow swimsuit, with much leg seen. The top of Fred's body is seen in the shower. Miss Stone says to Fred that she's his "personal secretary," and continues, "that is if you want me." Fred's tie rolls up fast in reaction. Miss Stone tells Fred that she enjoys working "long hours, late nights, even weekends." She puts a leg up on Fred and says, "So feel free to use me however you see fit." Miss Stone enters Fred's office wearing a leopard-print bra that shows much cleavage, and a skirt with a slit up the side, showing some leg. In a later scene, she wears a black ensemble. Fred says that he's going to read over the requisitions and Miss Stone exclaims, "No!" and puts a hand on the stack. She crawls on the desk on all fours, showing a lot more cleavage and she shows some leg from behind. Miss Stone then lies on her back on the desk, cleavage showing, and then Wilma walks into the office, holding Pebbles. Fred tries to act professional in front of Wilma and tells Miss Stone, "I'll sign those documents and place them on your desk." She replies, "Whatever you want," and turns quickly to walk out of the office, showing cleavage and then her nearly bare back and a shot of her clothed behind, swinging slowly from side to side, and the next shot is of Fred, looking at it, his head moving slowly from side to side. Fred tells Miss Stone, "There's a lot more to you than..." and makes a curving motion with his hands. Cliff grabs Miss Stone by her shoulders, tells her to stick to her strengths, and kisses her. He then runs a hand across her chest and puts his hands on the tops of her shoulders. Fred lifts Wilma out of their new car, and she shows some leg. Wilma emerges from a store wearing a new black dress that shows a bit of cleavage and some leg. In a hot tub, Wilma wears a bikini top that shows some cleavage. Many of the dancing women at Cavern on the Green, including Wilma, show some cleavage. When Wilma puts Pebbles down, some cleavage is seen. SMOKING Miss Stone smokes once, and the exhaled smoke turns into a dollar sign. TENSE FAMILY SCENES Fred says to Wilma about his mother-in-law, "What's that old fossil doing here? Did the tar pits back up again?" Throughout their contentious scene, Fred and Pearl trade insults and Fred asks Wilma for his club at one point. Pearl also bemoans Wilma's choice of a mate, saying that she could have married better. Wilma is miffed at Fred after seeing him with Miss Stone in a questionable manner, but doesn't press the matter any further. After making a mess of the house, breaking the material things and saying that she doesn't need all of that more than the Rubbles, Wilma walks out on Fred, carrying Pebbles, and goes to her mother's house. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are imperiled by a machine that chops rocks in half and shapes them in order to make building suburbia easier, and Fred and Barney do different things in order to try to save them. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT The various appliances used in Bedrock. Cliff's scheme to embezzle money from the Slate Rock and Gravel Company and his ways of doing it. The friendship between the Flintstones and the Rubbles, which becomes strained after the Flintstones become rich. Fred tells Barney that he doesn't have to consult Wilma on decisions made by him, since he's the king of his cave. Comparisons between the cartoon and the movie, such as the actors who play the roles, and the various moments found in the cartoon that are also in the movie. VIOLENCE Most of the following is played for comedy. Fred playfully grabs Barney's head with his arm and squeezes until Barney calls out "Uncle!" Fred kicks down the door to the house to announce his arrival. Dino runs at Fred and jumps on him. Fred falls and three trophies bounce up on their shelf to show the weight of Fred's fall. After Fred says about Dino, "Maybe he'd calm down if we had him fixed!", Dino knocks Fred in the face with his tail and runs off. Wilma takes a picture with a camera and Bamm-Bamm screams, then shouts "Bamm-bamm!" and hits Barney on the head with a bat. Bamm-Bamm runs after Barney and Betty with a club and breaks down part of a wall, leaving a shape of his figure. Barney throws a ball to Bamm-Bamm, who doesn't catch it, and it bounces off his face. Bamm-Bamm takes the ball and throws it back at Barney, who flies into the air and falls into Fred's backyard from the sheer force of the pitch. After Fred sneaks into the house, his foot lands on a roller skate, which rolls away and he trips backwards, landing face up on the floor. His bowling bowl is thrust into the air from the fall and it lands on his face and bounces off. The newspaper delivery guy wheels by a house and throws the slab, which breaks against the front outside wall of the house. Fred's alarm entails a quartz crystal shining reflected sunlight onto a rope, which burns and a rock falls on his head, waking him up. Fred accidentally closes the desk drawer on his finger and makes pained faces. Bamm-Bamm, on a rampage, smashes crystal in a high-end shop. Fred, rushing to his seat in the boardroom, accidentally knocks two men on their heads with his briefcase. Barney holds onto Dino's tail and is dragged through the front door of the Flintstone house and out Dino's trap door. A kid shoots a spit rock at Barney, who's working at a Chevron station. Barney is employed as a crash test dummy, but we see only the result of the crash into a wall from behind the wall, with dust and parts flying. Barney is later shown injured from this job. Barney and Betty start to leave Cavern on the Green, but Barney tells Betty that he "forgot to punch out," and he punches Fred in the face. Wilma says she doesn't need any of the material things she and Fred own, more than the Rubbles, and pushes over a lamp and the TV set, both of which break, and flings bone china dishes and drops cups and saucers to the floor. Fred says that the company made a fool of him, and the Dicta-Bird replies, "Well, look what they had to work with," and laughs. Fred flings a piece of a broken file slab at the bird, which ducks. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are imperiled by a machine designed to chop rocks in half and shape them, making suburban construction easier, and Fred and Barney try various things in order to save them. At one point, Barney tries to catapult himself at the kids, but hits a rock wall. In trying to figure out how to save the kids, Fred first thinks of a dinosaur chomping on his mother-in-law. Cliff points a three-barreled rock gun at Fred and shoots the rock that he holds. Miss Stone smashes a bag of clams against the back of Cliff's head and Cliff is knocked out. Fred catapults a huge boulder at the machine, which hits it and it explodes and breaks. Fred picks up a round boulder and bowls it at a fleeing Cliff, and Cliff falls. Reviewed off DVD / Posted June 6, 2008