The Flintstones

Yabba-Dabba Do! Everyone’s favorite modern Stone Age family, The Flintstones, is brought to the big screen as a live-action screwball comedy. The film follows a quarry worker named Fred Flintstone who receives a promotion to VP and is setup as a patsy for an embezzlement scheme. Starring John Goodman, Rick Moranis, Elizabeth Perkins, Rosie O'Donnell, Kyle MacLachlan, and Halle Berry, the film features an impressive cast. But while they do a fair job of imitating cartoon characters, the performances don’t really work in a live-action setting. And the same goes for the set designs and creature puppets, which do an amazing job at capturing a cartoon aesthetic, yet end up looking incredibly fake. Additionally, the comedy is rather hit-and-miss, with a mixture of prehistoric puns and slapstick. The Flintstones is entertaining and may work for young kids, but it lacks the wit and charm of the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

It's not good, and it's not clever, just a tirade of product placement and silly references to adults. That made me grimace rather than smile.