Herbie: Fully Loaded Review

by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)
July 14th, 2005
HERBIE: FULLY LOADED
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2005 David N. Butterworth

*** (out of ****)

After "The Parent Trap" and "Freaky Friday," Disney continues its unofficial series of "no-brainer remakes starring Lindsay Lohan" with "Herbie: Fully Loaded," a family-friendly redo of the 1968 classic "The Love Bug" about a freewheelin' Volkswagen Beetle with a mind all its own. Surprisingly this 2005 version isn't half bad due, in part, to Lohan's typically solid performance, Angela ("D.E.B.S.") Robinson's sound direction, and a tasty contribution by Matt Dillon (who can concurrently be seen in Paul Haggis's "Crash"), perfectly cast as NASCAR prima donna Trip Murphy. In fact, Dillon possibly betters David Tomlinson in the original... although let's try not to compare the two, since the original "'Love Bug" was a ton of fun in its own right (still is, in fact--I watched it again just the other night). This time around writers Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant move the action to the racecar circuit where Ray Peyton, Sr. (Michael Keaton) is struggling to maintain sponsorship due to a run of recent poor showings. But when the junker he buys his daughter Maggie (Lohan) as a graduation gift turns out to be that sassy little no. 53 that loves to race, Ray's luck gets a positive kick in the carburetor. There's not a whole lot of originality in this girl-meets-born-again-speedway-racer storyline but it's delivered with sass and style by a production team with fond memories of the original film (which itself spawned a bunch of sequels, clips from which play nostalgically under "'Fully Loaded"'s opening credits). And in keeping with today's equality there's a love interest not only for Maggie (Justin Long's youthful mechanic) but for Herbie as well, a curvaceous yellow ride.

--
David N. Butterworth
[email protected]

Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"
online at http://members.dca.net/dnb

More on 'Herbie: Fully Loaded'...

---

Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.