We continue our Summer movie reviews with Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded

July 1, 2005 -- About a month ago, we watched 1968s The Love Bug on DVD. It was Disney's first outing with the little Volkswagen named Herbie, who has magical powers and helps Jim Douglas, a down on his luck race car driver, find success.

It's a cute movie. With good performances by Dean Jones, Buddy Hackett, Michelle Lee, and David Tomlinson, The Love Bug has some nice depth and fairly well-defined characters. The special effects are hit and miss by today's standards, and some of the gags are groan inducing, but the movie still holds up pretty well.

It's amazing that The Love Bug was so popular that it grossed $20+ million during its initial release, second only that year to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

We also recently watched the 'Herbie' sequels that Disney cranked out in the 70s and early 80s. The ones in which Herbie rides again, goes to Monte Carlo, and goes bananas. And they're all fairly awful.

I didn't remember a 1981 Herbie the Love Bug or the 1982 TV series attempt [with Dean Jones reprising his role as Jim Douglas no less!], or a 1997 TV-movie starring Bruce Campbell [and Dean Jones again as Jim Douglas].

Herbie: Fully Loaded is the newest addition to the 'Herbie' franchise, and stars Lindsay Lohan, Michael Keaton, and Matt Dillon who actually puts forth a nicely slimey performance as Trip Murphy, a rival race car driver.

Oh, yeah, and Herbie the cute little 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, which has been ampted up a bit for this movie.

For this movie, Maggie [Lindsay Lohan] has just graduated college. As a member of a NASCAR-type race car driving family, her dad [Michael Keaton], would like her to get a real job - perhaps working at ESPN as a correspondent.

As a graduation gift, dad takes Maggie to the local junk yard to buy her a crappy car. Where, for some inexplicable reason, Herbie is being discarded. Herbie finds Maggie. Let the wackiness ensue.

There's a story here somewhere.

After running around with Herbie, Maggie gets the racing bug again and wants to compete professionally. She's apparently raced before, but we've never seen her race. We also don't really see her love for cars. Lindsay Lohan is cute and farily engaging, and we really liked her in Freaky Friday from a couple summers ago. In 'Herbie' I just don't buy that she's:

a. a sporty tomboy
b. a college graduate
c. a former race car driver

It's just all very convoluted.

Maggie meets Herbie. But Maggie doesn't seem very intrigued or interested in Herbie's supposed magic powers. The mechanic likes Maggie. Maggie feels misunderstood by dad. Maggie is getting grief from Matt Dillon. But where does it all fit together? And the moral of the story might be "Daddies, don't let your babies grow up to be race car drivers" or something.

One other nit-picky detail.

If Herbie is as popular as we're lead to believe in the opening credits, where clips from the old movies are shown, and headlines blaze 'HERBIE WINS AGAIN' why doesn't anyone recognize him? Wouldn't Maggie, and Michael Keaton, and Jeff Gordon know what Herbie is? We do!

The special effects are pretty clunky too. Herbie doesn't look very beleivable driving on the NASCAR track, and it appears some rear-screen projection is used when Lohan is driving Herbie. Also, I don't remember Herbie having eyelids or a bumper that becomes a sort of mouth allowing him to smile and frown. There are even a few CGI moments - Herbie is getting washed and he shakes off the water like a dog. In another scene he makes a face at the Matt Dillon character.

Both scenes were rather jarring and out of place.

Overall, Herbie: Fully Loaded just doesn't work. Like a recording artist doing a cover of an existing song, there has to be a reason for a remake. Otherwise, why bother? The Love Bug was a hit in 1968, but we've seen these situations with Herbie before. If you can't make it new and fresh and interesting, again, why bother?

It will be interesting to see what The Shaggy Dog is like. Oh, you haven't heard? A remake of that Disney classic is coming in 2006. Holy Farfegnugen!

It was okay, but a little bit boring too. And confusing. How did Herbie know how to street race? If Maggie is 18, why does she have to ask her dad for permission to race? I love Herbie, and think he's so cute. It was great to see him all cleaned up and fresh. The Monster Truck scene sort of scared me -- It was mean to put Herbie in the middle of that.

This movie is incredibly boring. I had a hard time buying into the whole premise. It was all so over the top that it just didn't register. And what happened to Herbie? He's no longer charming and cute, he's more of a punk. Should you go see Herbie: Fully Loaded ? No, I can't recommend it at all.

A bad 'Herbie' redux to add to the other bad 'Herbie' sequels. If you need to see that magical VW, stick with the original The Love Bug.