The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas: Critic Reviews

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas stumbles at its outset by setting up an adult premise inevitably undone by the film's aspirations to family entertainment.

The prequel is like eating a second helping of underdone bronto burger and being kept awake by the resulting indigestion-induced Dali-esque nightmare.

The key to appreciating The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas is low expectations.

There are still some pretty funny lines and gags.

It's not delightful or funny or exciting, and for long stretches, it looks exactly like hapless actors standing in front of big rocks and reciting sitcom dialogue.

The jokes are pathetic.

A pleasant surprise.

Kids will love the crowd-pleasing depiction of an entire prehistoric world, complete with an adorable baby Dino -- and loads of great sight gags and puns.

If you are a kid -- or the parent of a kid -- this movie may, in fact, be your best bet out there. But if you are neither, Viva Rock Vegas is much more of a gamble.

The first live-action movie of The Flintstones in 1994 was a Tyrannosaurus wreck, a production design in search of a story. Now director Brian Levant has made a prequel ... that's almost as dumb.

The cast from the first Flintstones movie has gone off to break rocks somewhere else.

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas is cute and funny, with plenty of slapstick and cuddly creatures for the kids and enough adult wit to keep parents reasonably amused.

Livelier, it feels more like a cartoon.

Um, no surprises here. Better than the original.

What’s with the film’s odd preoccupation with such adult themes as class, money, and sex?

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?

Falls from interestingly loopy to tiresome.

If you need a quick cartoon high, and a few cheap laughs, before the real summer movies begin, Viva Rock Vegas is your temporary fix.

A convoluted mess that will likely appeal to neither the young nor the old.

It is better than the original.

As entertainment for kids, or for adults, it misjudges its audience by at least a millennium.

A sad, strange, dismal thing to inflict upon a child, let alone their parents, who've taken them with something like, say, fun in mind.