Herbie: Fully Loaded Movie Review

Release date: June 22, 2005
Directed by: Angela Robinson
Running time: 1:32
Distributor: Disney
Starring: Michael Keaton, Matt Dillon, Breckin Meyer, Justin Long, Lindsay Lohan Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating:
Photos and Stills from the Movie: View here

Herbie: Fully Loaded is the remake of the 1960s comedy about a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. Herbie is a living car that raced through his own run of movies through the ’70s to the ’90s. It is a fast paced, breezy ride for the summer. The story sets up a lot of racing scenes to show Herbie in action.

Herbie is more animated, both in character and in form and instead of freaking out bad guys with the whole “possessed car” thing, he now actively beats them up. What was once achieved with driverless maneuvering and horn honks is now communicated through special effects and computer animation. The headlights move like eyes, his sun visors frown like eyebrows and when he is angry, his grill curves like a smile. He demonstrates here a lot of emotional sighs like oohs and aaha.

Apart from CGI animated car action the film revolves round the Maggie/Herbie buddy relationship, the Maggie/Kevin romance, the Maggie/Trip rivalry, the Maggie/Father overprotection issue and the whole fake persona of Max. One subplot affects another. Revealing Max affects Maggie’s father, the rivalry with Trip raises tensions with Herb. The whole dynamic sets up a lot of racing scenes and it all ties together.

Maggie Peyton (Lindsay Lohan) is pushed towards real life by her father Ray (Michael Keaton) when all she really wants is to join in the family racing tradition. Kevin (Justin Long) plays the Disney standard, the best friend obviously in love with the female lead, while Breckin Meyer gets about three seconds of screen time as Lohan’s crash-prone brother. Fully Loaded does feature a few fun races. Maggie and Herbie face-off against Trip Murphy (Matt Dillon) several times, on the street and in the desert, all as a way of setting up her acceptance from dad and the little car’s climactic entry in NASCAR.

In this movie, Herbie is at the junkyard, headed for the scrap heap, thats when he’s rescued by fresh-out-of-college Maggie Peyton. She needs a beater car to drive around for a month before she moves to New York to begin a life of servitude as an intern at ESPN. With the help of a local mechanic she knew in high school, Kevin she gets the car in working order.

Maggie’s secret ambition is to be a race car driver like her father and her grandfather before her. But her overprotective dad, Ray has forbidden it, vesting all his hopes and dreams in her untalented brother instead.

Herbie, of course, has a way of making dreams come true. Within hours of her car purchase, Maggie finds herself in a street race with NASCAR winner Trip Murphy, and from there, her career, and Herbie’s, takes off.

Herbie isn’t the only draw in the movie, however. Lohan, who is about to turn 19, has considerable star power of her own. Her role is to appeal younger fans and to satisfy her desire to stop playing adolescents. Lohan’s matter-of-fact charm sells it, and, unlike other young actresses in her position, she never lets on that she has outgrown this kiddie material.

The soundtrack is great with a mix of classic songs and covers of classics by new singers. Each one gets you pumping.

It’s enjoyable, a legitimate feel-good movie, a fun distraction from heavy intellectual material. The kids will like it. Plus it was filmed months ago, so a pre-blond, pre-stick figure Lohan is still hot enough to gaze at for 90 minutes.