All sorts of consumer products and office equipment and supplies are reproduced in stone, and the costumes are a combo of caveman chic and suburban ready-to-wear.
The cars that run on foot-power, for example, look as clunky and heavy as in the original drawings, but somehow plausible, too (and there's a great early scene where the Flintstones motor out to the drive-in to see a movie "Tar Wars," of course). The best way to describe the look of this movie is to say that the physical world of the cartoon series and the comic strip has been translated to live action with no compromise. A simpler story, involving human relationships and adventures instead of office shenanigans, would have been more interesting for kids, and probably for older audiences, too. The plot is a too-laborious working out of all of those threads, none of which really generate much interest. (Here, as elsewhere, there are lots of stone age jokes, as Fred chips his multiple-choice answers into a slab of stone with a chisel.) Not telling his friend, Barney substitutes his own answers for Fred's, and Fred wins a promotion to the head office, where boss Cliff Vandercave ( Kyle MacLachlan) and his slinky secretary Miss Stone ( Halle Berry) quickly see how they can use his stupidity to cheat the workers and embezzle company funds. When Fred is able to help them out, Barney repays him when an aptitude test is administered down at Slate & Company, where they both work. His best friends are Barney and Betty Rubble ( Rick Moranis and Rosie O'Donnell), who desperately hope to adopt a baby. But he keeps hearing how he should be bringing home a bigger paycheck. Nagged at home by his mother-in-law ( Elizabeth Taylor, looking terrific), who spurs his wife Wilma ( Elizabeth Perkins) to discontent, he is generally happy at work.
Do kids really care much about office politics, embezzlement, marital problems, difficulties with adoption, aptitude exams and mothers-in-law? John Goodman stands foursquare at the center of the story, as Fred Flintstone, a repository of good nature, insecurity, and rock-headed stubbornness. But the story is confusing, not very funny, and kind of odd, given the target audience of younger children and their families.