Film Summary CCCLXIX (The Man Called Flintstone)

'Cute' might be the best word to describe this film.

It's Fred Flintstone in a supposed spoof of James Bond films. But in reality it's more of a Looney Tunes cartoon in where the characters are constantly being berated by slapstick humour. The spoof seems kind of secondary. With the exception of the singing montages what's get it pretty spot on.

Our opening scene is a confusing one. It's (A look alike of) Fred Flintstone in a car being chased by two goons. As they drive through various canyons and jump across rooftops. The goons finally corner the Fred Flintstone character and knock him out. Thinking that they've been rid of him for good.
We then see the Fred Flintstone look alike contacting his local headquarters via a radio communication watch* where he informs his boss a local Detective that he's been injured on the job and may need medical attention.
Now it's during this time that we discover that this character is not Fred Flintstone. He's a secret agent who just happens to look like Fred Flintstone. And that would be fine by me. It's a movie plot that's been done plenty of other times before. One of my absolute favourite films did this ''Scapegoat.''
But I have one major problem with this. The secret agent is wearing the exact same a suit as Fred Flintstone. He's wearing that orange tiger skin with the blue tie. And I wouldn't just chop that up to lazy drawing because later on Fred Flintstone uses his tie for something and it gets destroyed. Throughout the rest of the film up to a point he doesn't have his tie anymore so they were paying attention to some continuity. But for some reason they also gave the secret agent the exact same clothing. And this really confuses me because Fred Flintstone and the secret agent aren't supposed to be connected yet.

So now we cut over to the real Fred Flintstone and his friend Barney. They and their wines are planning on having a local vacation at a campsite. Barney and Fred need to take their pets to the vet. Which is an easier task said than done. Neither one of the animals want to be away from their family and the idea of the vet makes them scared. Luckily the vet has both a kangaroo and a Dino dinosaur female equivalent the female Dino being named 'Jar Jar' of all things.
On the return trip home Fred being the ''brilliant'' man that he is decides to take a shortcut. Which leads him into an accident where he bumped his head.

It's at this point that I thought I knew where the story was going. I assumed it would be Fred Flintstone going to the hospital, getting mistaken for the secret agent and accidentally taking on his role all while the other secret agent is either unavailable or accidentally taking on the role of Fred Flintstone. After all they were been plenty of stories were Fred is hit on the head and then thinks he's someone else. But they didn't go that route. Instead Fred Flintstone is identified by the detective who works with the secret agent and he's asked directly if he wants to replace him for the time being until the secret agent can recover. Fred is reluctant at first but then accept it after he discovered that he can have an all-expenses paid trip to Patty France with he's family.

So in this universe we discover that France exist. And not just any form of France post-revolutionary France. Complete with their own Stone Age architecture. There's even a rocket they can blast off into space later on. And conversations about intercontinental ballistic missiles. Yeah that's a plot that pops up later on in the movie.
And we also get a scene of The Flintstones going to an airport and then seeing the difference between first class and last class. Which unfortunately is the class the rubbles are on. It's so bad they have to sit on the wing. It's a joke that'll be ripped off some 40 years later when Dilbert dose the same thing. In fact there's a lot of weird cliches and even character designs from this movie that will pop up in later films and shows some 20 to 50 years later.

Overall most of the film is pretty fun. With The Flintstones running around doing their own silly things and the weird slapstick that occasionally comes into their lives with these two random goons keep trying to hurt Fred.
The last 20 minutes feel like a different film. Fred has to deal with the main villain and this weird plot involving a missile. The whole thing is very reminiscent of 1980s Hanna-Barbera cartoons. So it is kind of funny to see glimpses of their future popping up.
The only parts of the movie I didn't like was the child singing bits. And really there's only one long song that does that. So you skip about 2 minutes somewhere in the middle where Bam Bam and Pebbles are supposed to sing and then you go on with the rest of the film which is just light-hearted fun.

Who would have guessed that Triple-X would have popped up in this film. No not O'Shea Jackson. No not that other loser either, this is the guy that predates them all. The supposed Master of Disguise and partial aid to Fred Flintstone. Yes Flintstone predicted the ''might'' of the xXx films 50 years before they came out.
What a horrible name for a film franchise. It's impossible to look up those films without finding a bunch of other stuff you don't want to see.

*So this wrest communication watch is a piece of technology straight out of a James Bond film. It looks like a piece of modern technology. Which is kind of strange when you consider that everything in The Flintstones world is supposed to have a stone age veneer to it. It's a fundamental rule of The Flintstones Universe. No other piece of technology in the film is done like this. It all has some sort of stone or dinosaur Motif to it. With the exception of this one piece. I don't know if they just didn't think about it, if they had a practical reason for not acknowledging it. As if the Stone Age the American government (and I'm going to assume they're American) has modern technology and simply wishes to not acknowledge it. I just Don't Know!