Herbie Fully Loaded (2005)

Who payed the critics

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's been 13 years since this came out! And to this day it will always be my favourite movie of all time

Herbie the Love Bug Number 53 has fallen on tough times. He's in the junkyard ready to be scraped. Ray Peyton Sr. (Michael Keaton) is struggling with his son Ray Jr. (Breckin Meyer) to pay the bills racing. Sr. takes his daughter Maggie (Lindsay Lohan) out to buy a car from the junkyard. Tomboy former street racer Maggie wants a muscle car but Herbie intervene. She and her old friend Kevin (Justin Long) fix up the Bug. Despite promising her dad never to race again, she gets into a street race with arrogant top racer Trip Murphy (Matt Dillon) as the mysterious Maxx.It's going for the same silly family fun as the originals with limited success. A couple of things bug me. The first is Lohan's constant squealing. It may be cute for some but it gets a little annoying. The second is that everybody goes nuts over Maggie making an offhanded comment about liking Trip's car. The CG Bug isn't quite the same charming old VW Bug. The movie probably needs a good comedian to clown around. This is OK but not that good.

If you end up watching this, you will probably be like me in saying that it starts off great then gradually begins to suck. It holds the attention but demands complete suspension of logic. Maggie Peyton, the new owner of Number 53 - the free-wheelin' Volkswagen bug with a mind of its own - puts the car through its paces on the road to becoming a NASCAR competitor. Fortunately the director lets the actors breathe and the music lets the atmosphere live. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them. My final rating for this is 7 out of 10.

My Take: Silly excuse for humor derails any opportunity to dust off a few bits of nostalgia. If you want to get as close to the classics starring the No. 53 Volkswagen Beetle car in this silly, no-brained 2005 revisit, don't miss the opening, which features a montage of Herbie's finest moments from his previous adventures. As a matter of fact, if nostalgia is the only reason you wanted to see the new HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, watch the opening scenes then silently leave the room for a awhile and make sure you be back for your kids later. Because HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, though old-fashioned, is still a distant cousin to the screwball classics. Despite a few good-hearted giggles, this one's more of a vehicle (no pun intended) for Lindsay Lohan than a long-delayed tribute of a sequel.Lohan plays Maggie Peyton, a would-be racer who wants to take her shot at the racetrack, but is discouraged by her protective dad (Michael Keaton). Instead, her brother (Breckin Meyer) does all the racing. Things change for Maggie when she buys a busted old bug who happens to be everyone's favorite little-car-that-could. Pretty soon, she's competing with a fascist race driver (Matt Dillon) and winning every race she's in. But is winning really everything? Or is it the friendship with that witty little automobile? We've heard the moral of this story before.HERBIE: FULLY LOADED is the third of a set of redone Disney classics (the others being PARENT TRAP and FREAKY Friday) starring Lohan. But of the three, it seems that she's most inappropriate in HERBIE, making it more obvious that this wasn't really meant to relish back those memories but more to introduce Disney's new pop star. How else could you explain the music video? Besides that, even with the consideration of silly sight gags that might sprout a few giggles from the little tykes, HERBIE: FULLY LOADED is a completely silly but not in a fun way comedy, with no real characters to relate to, except maybe the car of the title but even he (or it) gets boring real fast. The "comedy" relies heavily on funny-looking special effects that are more silly than really funny. No one really laughs at oil being spilled on coats anymore! Unless you are a really devoted fan of Herbie, and there's no other choice of a babysitter for an hour or two, HERBIE: FULLY LOADED might make a decent rental. Otherwise, drive away! Rating: ** out of 5.