Herbie: Fully Loaded - G
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that the movie includes images potentially disturbing for small children during a demolition derby, when a monster truck targets Herbie the car, and slight sexual innuendo concerning Herbie's interest in an apparently female yellow Volkswagen (his antenna goes "erect" at the sight of her, an allusion that will likely go right over the head of the youngest kids). There are many brand-name logos present.
Families might discuss Maggie's repeated lies to her father concerning her racing. How could she have achieved her goals without lying? How might her father have been less rigid about rejecting her desire to race? How is his resistance based on the idea that her brother can race, but a girl should not? Families might also talk about the cheating by the champion driver and his punishment (he's designated "crazy" and carted off in an ambulance, even though his belief that the car is "out to get him" is technically correct).
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Kids may get a kick out of the lovable car revived, but adults will find the trendy NASCAR connection slow going. Clunky and mostly unfunny, HERBIE: FULLY LOADED begins as Maggie Peyton (Lindsay Lohan) graduates from college and plans to leave for NYC, where she has a job at ESPN. This future pleases her NASCAR star father, Ray (Michael Keaton), but she really wants to race. But while she's talented, gutsy, and smart, Dad refuses to let her drive because years ago, she totaled a street racing car.
Maggie's graduation present changes all this: Herbie, a 1963 Beetle she and Dad find in a junkyard, has "personality" and what seems a singular will to race. With Maggie at the wheel but not exactly steering, Herbie wangles his way into a street race with egotistical NASCAR superstar Trip (an appropriately hammy Matt Dillon), which he wins against considerable odds (Trip drives a tricked-out racecar, even on the street).
Embarrassed by the loss, Trip sets up a rematch, for which Maggie and her mechanic Kevin (Justin Long) rebuild Herbie. Their prep means she has to lie to Ray, who still hopes that Ray Jr. (Breckin Meyer), who doesn't like racing, will continue the family's legacy. Thus, multiple tensions are set: Maggie and Herbie vs. Trip, Maggie vs. her dad, Ray Jr. vs. Ray Sr., and Ray Sr. against the clock, as his sponsors are pulling out because his team is not winning. Trip's eventual efforts to undermine Herbie lead to the very depressed and abandoned Bug's engagement in a demolition derby where he's smashed up by a monster truck before Maggie shows up to inspire him ("You can do it, Herbie!").
While the movie is focused on Herbie and Maggie's "relationship" (they learn to have faith in each other, though thankfully, each has a romantic partner -- Maggie likes Kevin and Herbie a yellow bug), it also illustrates the business of NASCAR. That is, it shows how teams need sponsors and features actual logos prominently (Cheetos, Home Depot, Tropicana). The crossover marketing goes so far as to include a kind of human product placement: HERBIE features brief appearances by real-life drivers like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson; moreover, the timing of Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Danica Patrick's recent fourth place finish couldn't be better, and she's also been recruited to promote the film. Synergy is one thing, overkill is another.
Families who enjoy this movie might also like 1968's The Love Bug (or the three sequels), Lohan's Freaky Friday and The Parent Trap (also remakes), or Racing Stripes, which has the same plot, but a zebra instead of the car.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentBoy car has a crush on a girl car; girl kisses boyfriend at end. |
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ViolenceCars crash; a slightly scary demolition derby. |
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LanguageA character complains about "busting his butt." |
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Social BehaviorGirl lies to her father, villain cheats, car squirts liquids on opponents. |
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CommercialismNASCAR is all about commercial endorsement logos. |
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