You may ask yourself, "Does the world need two live action Flintstones movies?"

The answer is probably a resounding no.

Which is exactly why it is such a miracle that this movie even exists at all.

Yes, I said miracle.

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas is not the kind of story that makes you stop and think poignant thoughts. Honestly, it's not the kind of movie that makes you think any thoughts. But it does have the kind of super-sized fun that makes your vehicle roll over when the carhop hooks it on your window, and if you're going to the movies for any other reason than to have fun, I pity you.

I mean honestly, if you're going to come out of movie that's a prequel to a live action movie based on a cartoon based on a live action series and be disappointed because the plot was clichéd and the story unfolded like a magazine made of granite slabs bound with big tattered rings of fuzzy leather, then I'm afraid you've missed the point. This was a movie about magazines made of granite slabs bound with big tattered rings of fuzzy leather.

Can you imagine working on this film? The Flintstones movies are the only ones that I can think of where every single thing that appears on the screen is manufactured just for that movie. I mean, every prop, every building, every vehicle, every costume, every bowling ball, vending machine, primate, dental appliance, cheeseburger, shoe tree, etc. has been painstakingly reproduced to look like it was drawn by some crappy Hanna-Barbera animator of the '60s. Nothing is off the shelf. Not even the more prominent foliage. They're not using salt shakers for medical tricorders or anything, you know? It's mind boggling when you think about it.

If you're like me, when you first heard that Fred Flintstone was going to be played by the fat guy from The Full Monty you said to yourself, "Okay, I can see that. Sure." When you heard that Wilma was going to be the Third Rock from the Sun chick, you were all, "Why not? That'll work." Betty as the Ally McBeal chick: "Um... I've never seen Ally McBeal...but she's got to be better than Rosie O'Donnell in the first movie. What kind of crack rock were they on?"

But when you found out that Barney was going to be played by a Baldwin, you were outraged. "A Baldwin as Barney Rubble? What gives? They're all so handsome and interchangeable! They can't play Fred's marginally retarded midget sidekick!"

This is exactly why I was so amazed at his performance. He was the best Barney Rubble ever. His voice and his mannerisms, and even his patented laugh were so dead on perfect that I couldn't stop laughing every time he was on the screen for the first half hour of the movie. Stephen is now officially my favorite Baldwin.

Although I did get to the theater mercifully late enough to miss the inevitable Dinosaur preview, I was happily blown away with the display of computer dinosaurs that I got in Bedrock. The creature effects in Viva Rock Vegas were just astoundingly realistic. Not realistic in a Jurassic Park, "based on fossil records" kind of real, but in a A Bug's Life, "looks like it's really really there and you could walk up and kick it if you were there too" kind of real. Considering the ludicrous nature of everything else in that world, the dinosaurs fit in perfectly in style and execution.

Speaking of gigantic animals that almost look real, it made me happy in a "the universe is a just place after all" kind of way to see that not only was annoying voice-cannon Rosie O'Donnell NOT reprising her role as prehistoric sexpot Betty Rubble, but she had also been reduced to one voice-over line for a grotesque blue octopus. Ha ha Rosie. You suck.

Something that didn't suck about the movie that really should have was the inclusion of that selectively visible extra-terrestrial scamp, the Great Gazoo. Since the Gazoo was introduced as a desperate tenth season ploy to attract ratings to a modern stone age animated sitcom that was just about to go the way of the dinosaur, it seemed unnecessary, or at the very least unusual, to include him in the story of how Fred and Wilma and Barney and Betty first hooked up.

If nothing else, the inclusion of the Gazoo is pretty much a tombstone for the live action Flintstones movie run as far as this reviewer is concerned. Not because of the aforementioned desperate ratings grab factor, but because of his inclusion at such an illogical place in the Flintstones timeline. It reads like a Universal exec saying, "Okay, the kids are into the retro stuff, especially the obscure. We put the Great Gazoo into a movie, the teeny-boppers go 'Oh yeah, I remember that guy', and we sell a lot of T-shirts. Let's use him up now, 'cause it ain't like there's another one of these things in the pipe. And how's that live action Hair Bear Bunch flick coming along?"

When all was said and done and the credits started to roll, the packed house started to applaud.

Yes, applaud. It was a terribly fun movie. A barrel of monkeys has nothing on this movie for pure fun per cubic inch.

Like I said before, if you're some self-proclaimed film expert who watches the director's commentary on the Sixth Sense DVD and then pretends to know his ass from his elbow about cinematography, stay at home all alone with all of your friends, watch Life is Beautiful again, and practice your long winded spiel on its use of metaphor in the bathroom mirror.

If you go out to the movies to actually have a good time, laugh, and appreciate the ludicrous eye candy of a world made entirely of fleck-stoned foam rubber, then you won't want to miss The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.

I'll take fun over art any day. Pass me a damn beer.