The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)

THE FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS (2000) ** Mark Addy, Stephen Baldwin, Kristen Johnston, Jane Krakowski, Thomas Gibson, Joan Collins, Alan Cumming, Harvey Korman, Alex Meneses, (voices of Mel Blanc and Rosie O' Donnell). (Dir: Brian Levant)

`The Flintstones' were one of my all time favorite cartoons growing up and I certainly appreciated it years later as an uncanny Stone Age homage to `The Honeymooners' - arguably the greatest sitcom ever created - and was surprised that a prequel was in production to the less than stellar live action adaptation a few years ago with John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis and Rosie O' Donnell. Go figure.

Here the plot - such as it is - centers on how good buddies Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble (Addy, the portliest member of the English lads in `The Full Monty' and Baldwin playing dim) met their future spouses Wilma and Betty - nee Slaghoople and O'Shale - (Johnston, the Amazonian alien from tv's `Third Rock From The Sun' and Krakowski of `Ally McBeal'). Seems Wilma is trying to get by when she abdicates her rich bitch mother Pearl (Collins, remarkably well-preserved precursor to the first film's Elizabeth Taylor) and her dotty, yet loving father the Colonel (perennial gold standard second banana comic vet Korman who gives plenty of smiles whenever he's onscreen), shirking her inherited lifestyle for a down on her luck lifestyle supported by the giddy barhop Betty who works at Bronto King where the two get along famously. It is there that the two cavemen meet the wives-to-be and set up a blind date after encountering mini alien The Great Gazoo (creepily envisioned with the full-size head of Cumming) who is there to observe mating habits of the `dumb dumbs'. From there the rest is - as the theme song goes - `a gay all time!' After the two couples find their true loves (Barney was originally Wilma's date and Fred, Betty's) they quickly realize they are meant to be together but Pearl's interference with her estranged daughter only makes matters worse when she throws a party inviting the foursome to discover her plans of getting Wilma back with her ex, playboy and snake in the grass Chip Rockefeller (Gibson of `Dharma and Greg') who ploys to usurp Fred from Wilma at a set up vacation in his casino in - you guessed it! - Rock Vegas. Sure the storyline is pretty lame and some of the puns ridiculous

• which was the appeal of the tv series frankly - but the cast

seems to be enjoying themselves. Addy gives an uncanny impersonation of both Jackie Gleason and Alan Reed, the original voice of Fred; Baldwin is believeably dippy; Johnston ably sexy and goofy and Krakowski's giggle is dead-on. And while the production design is accurate to the original with some inventive visuals (the dinosaur rollercoaster for example) and the debut of baby Dino the film just seems unnecessary and by the time Mick Jagged and the Stones (with Cumming - again - doing a gross caricature of Mick Jagger) arrive the energy seems depleted and going through the motions. Yet little ones who are just getting a taste for the classic cartoon will not be disappointed and of course I'm sure that Universal will still pump them out as long as there's an audience.

PS: My only quibble is why they didn't allow Korman to voice the superscilious Gazoo (which he was on the old show) and make him more of animatronic than the bizarre and disturbing looking one in the film. Maybe they can check into that for the inevitable sequel.