Review Monday: The Flintstones

Since I’ve been blabbing about the Stone Age most of last week, I decided to start looking for a film that would depict the Stone Age well. Disappointing enough, all Amazon came up with were Sesame Street DVDs. Either their search algorithm is broken, or there really are no good films about the Stone Age in English (which would be hard to believe). At least, the result made me remember a film I watched on TV quite a while ago, The Flintstones. I’m not talking about the cartoon-series but about the film with John Goodman and Rick Moranis as Fred and Barney.

About the film:
The overambitious superior of Fred Flintstone promotes him despite Fred’s lack of intelligence. With his pockets full of money and a boosted ego, Fred enjoys life to the fullest, completely forgetting his old friends. Of course this has to lead to problems, especially when Barney gets in the way of Fred’s superior’s ugly plans.

My thoughts:
Since I had been looking for a film that would show how people really lived in the Stone Age, finding nothing but the Flintstones was a disappointment. At least, even the smallest kid will understand that the way of life in the real Stone Age was much different from what this film shows. If you’re not expecting an accurate retelling of Stone Age customs, this film is great. The story is fast paced and intelligent, and the way Fred puts his foot in is hilarious. Still, the film manages to take its characters seriously. At the end, when Fred and Barney accidentally invent concrete, my sides hurt from laughing. Hey, sometimes you’ve got to put learning aside and have some fun (says someone who couldn’t stop learning if her life depended on it), and this is just the film for it.