Herbie: Fully Loaded

Dir: Angela Robinson

2005

*

After eighteen years Disney finally decided to resurrect the Herbie series with a film that might have just killed it off for good. With a horrible title, typical of the time, the new millennium's version of Herbie is all about product placement and ignorance. The way the film makers have made out that no one has ever seen a Volkswagen Beetle before is irritating enough and then to make out that it is an ugly car that no one likes, even though it is one of the most popular cars ever made, is just plain annoying. It seemed a bold and interesting direction to include the new Herbie into the world of NASCAR racing, until you realize that it is just a way of getting as much advertising as possible into the film. NASCAR has always had limited appeal to me anyway, seeing as the cars just go round and round in one big circle. That said, many great films have been made about NASCAR racing, but Herbie: Fully Loaded isn't one of them. Fully Loaded, the sixth Herbie film in the series, doesn't seem to be connected to the previous film although director Angela Robinson has since said that she tried to get original Herbie star Dean Jones to appear but in an undisclosed role. I can't help but think if he'd appeared as Jim Douglas, the original owner of Herbie, it would beg the question of why he would have let the little car go and end up on the scrap heap - for the second time! It would have been more of a cameo I would have thought but due to other work commitments Jones dodged a bullet and didn't appear. It's a bit of a horror all round really, as Lindsay Lohan brings nothing to the role (I think she was on a Disney contract and have little choice), Justin Long was quite good but his lines were not and I sincerely hope that both Matt Dillon and Michael Keaton were paid handsomely as this is a blot on both of their careers. Poor little Herbie deserved better than this, there are even a few scenes where he is CGI'ed, which for me was the final insult. It's such a simple concept, it is amazing how Disney got it so wrong - again, although the money they made would suggest otherwise. The whole thing made me rather unhappy.