Flintstones: Die Familie Feuerstein

1st watched 1/12/2003 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Brian Levant): Well-made live action imitation of the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. Maybe it's because Hanna & Barbera were involved and were two of the executive producers of the movie as well as having small roles in the production. Besides this, this classic tale of life in the stone age had tremendous casting in the way of John Goodman(Fred Flintstone), Rick Moranis(Barney Rubbel) and the entire group for that matter. The movie starts with the Rubbel family adding a new member in the adopted Bam-Bam and then the rest of the movie matches pretty much the way the two families lived their lives & worked together as neighbors in the prehistoric town of Bedrock. Of course there is evil-a-foot within a demented man in a higher position in the stone quarry who tries to frame Fred and the rest of the movie is a culmination of all this. What is great about the movie & the series the Flintstones is that no matter what trouble they got in, the families always patched it up in the end showing us what true friends our made of. And besides all this the movie was funny & visually appealing too !!

"The Flintstones" is a film that tries hard to be likeable and succeeds for the most part, but with that said this is only a fair film at best. The cartoons come to real live and the nostalgia carries some of the film. However, the paper-thin plot destroys any chance that the film has to be a complete success. Naive Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) has been promoted and is now a big-time businessman. Of course the villains, Halle Berry and Kyle MacLachlan, are just using Fred to steal from Mr. Slate's company. Wilma (Elizabeth Perkins) quickly becomes jealous of Berry, but overlooks everything because Fred is raking in the cash. Barney Rubble (Rick Moranis) meanwhile is unemployed because he had the lowest score on an IQ test (he actually switched tests with Fred because Fred had lent him money to adopt Bamm-Bamm). Throughout his financial crisis, Betty (Rosie O'Donnell) stands beside him. Fred finally becomes wise to what is going on, but MacLachlan has a devious scheme up his sleeve. All in all "The Flintstones" is a good looking film with high production values, but ultimately the screenplay and direction cannot save this film. The characters play well on television, but are somewhat out of their element on the big screen. The cast is hard-working in spite of the fact the material is just not present. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

This movie is a must for any fan of the great cartoon series from the 60's. The special effects and the sets are incredible, they have put a lot of work into making that. Every little detail, that can be seen in the cartoon, is also in this movie, for example a lizard like dinosaur running on a wheel to pull an elevator. However, less work has been done to write the plot, which is somewhat week and full of cliches. John Goodmann makes a great Fred, but Rick Moranis' Barney does not really resemble Mel Blanc's from the cartoon. I think his laugh is missing, also the general way Mel Blanc's Barney speaks is different. Rosie O'Donnel's Betty, on the other hand, is good. This movie is still a must for any Flinstones fan. The plot is not the most important part of this movie, the way Steven Spielberg made drawings come to live is.

The Flinstones, next to The Simpsons, it's one of the best known animated shows of all time, we all know the name Fred Flinstone. It's such a great series, I grew up watching it, I still will catch an episode or two on the Cartoon Network and I'm sure it's something that my children will watch too one day. So in 1994, we had the live action version of The Flinstones come into theaters, my family took me to see it, I was 9 years old, it was either this or Pulp Fiction, I'm sure my parents didn't struggle much with that decision. But still as a kid I absolutely loved this movie, I think I wore out the VHS quite a bit. So I grew up and of course caught the movie on HBO, I figured that I would just give the movie another shot to see if it was still as fun as I remembered and actually I still love it.

Cliff Vandercave, the Executive Vice President of Industrial Procurement at Slate & Co., plans to appoint a Vice President of his division to frame for a crime. To find one, he makes an exam to give to the quarry operators, among whom are Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone. Fred loans Barney money so he and his wife, Betty can adopt a child. They adopt a caveboy named Bamm-Bamm. Barney appreciates what Fred did for him and is determined to pay him back. While taking the exams, Fred fails it, and is disappointed since he will not be able to give his wife, Wilma the wealthy life she used to have. Barney takes Fred's exam up for him and notices how poorly he did. To pay him back for giving him the money to adopt Bamm-Bamm, he swaps his exam with Fred's and Fred is promoted to Vice President. Cliff orders Fred to fire Barney because of his exam score, and he fires Barney at the Rubbles' surprise party, but does his best to help Barney afterwards with financial problems. But Cliff still has big plans to set Fred up for a big fall and the Rubbles are starting to get sick of the Flinstone's over the top extravagances.

Honestly, I really did enjoy The Flinstones as much as I did when I was a kid, I know the main reason a lot of people complain about this movie is because of the casting, but even with Rosie O'Donnell in it I thought she was adorable, we had a great cast, everyone has their own ideas, but just deal with it and understand who this movie was made for. Granted as an adult I'm not going to go out of my way to watch this movie by myself, but I still wouldn't mind at all showing this to my younger cousins and watching it with them. It has cute jokes, a fun cast, and a good story with tons of fun sets and props. I would recommend this movie to watch with your family if you get the chance, it's a rockin' good time.

7/10

I was 8 years old when this movie came out and remember really liking it despite the lackluster reviews it received from not only critics but most of my friends as well. I don't remember anybody out and out hating it, it just kinda got one of those "meh" grunts whenever it was mentioned.

Now I'm twenty three and I just watched it again and I gotta say, I still think it's pretty damn good. And unless you just simply are not of a fan of the Flintstones cartoons I don't see how you can not like this film. It plays like an extended episode of the series, with a plot not unlike something we have seen in our Saturday morning reruns, but loaded with enough clever one liners and risqué humor to elevate it to a much more adult oriented comedy. It's also got tons of sight gags and background jokes that you will likely need some multiple viewings to appreciate. Not to mention the sheer scope and execution of the sets, costumes and animatronic and CG dinosaurs are really something to admire, especially for its day.

The actors all play their parts well too, John Goodman and Rick Moranis as Fred and Barney are the standouts but there's nobody here that I thought fell short. Yes, I would have liked to have seen Betty portrayed with somebody with more curves in the right places...I mean she was the hottie in the cartoon and Rosie O'Donnell's physique definitely doesn't live up, but you have to give credit where credit is due and while she may not look quite the same, she plays the part well and has the voice and trademark giggle down perfectly.

Is this a fantastic film no...but I enjoy it every time I watch it and I think the attention to detail and obvious care that went into making this movie alone should keep it entertaining for years to come and considering its unlikely anything quite like this will ever be done again outside of its sequels, I would not be surprised if this movie eventually earns its respect among film buffs in the future.