Herbie Fully Loaded
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
With their favorite young female star Lindsay Lohan,
Disney decided to give it a try at relaunching the “Love Bug” franchise with Herbie
Fully Loaded, a 2005 feature film that had mixed commercial and critical
results in bringing back one of film’s favorite living automobiles. Though built in 1963, the Volkswagen Beetle
with the number 53 on it is on the brink of being taken apart, but circumstances
bring it together with the daughter (Lohan) of a racing legend (Michael Keaton)
who needs a car and is forbidden to ever race again after an accident.
The rest would be obvious formula filmmaking, but the film
still has fun with mixed results of bringing the car back to life and putting
it on new adventures. Remembering the
fun of the original films in their time as the fun, smart family films they
were and still are, this film is not bad.
It has a fine cast of mostly unknowns, though Matt Dillon is also good,
while the use of the car in its return has some heart and soul. The problem is that soul is competing
instead of integrating with said formula and that is where the film gets into
some trouble. Lohan is a gifted comic
actress, as she proves over and over again, while even more could have been
done with the story instead of so many “cutesy” moments with the car that can
be appealing, but are a bit overdone.
However, it is a good restart and with a simple mix-up,
Herbie could ride again like never before.
This DVD will help that. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is not bad, but seems a little more
digital than it should be. Part of this
is the outdoor scenes looking less naturalistic than they did on 35mm in the
theater. More annoying are obvious
digital enhancements on Miss Lohan’s chest done because the studio thought this
aspect of her anatomy was too distracting or “PG-13” for children. Janet Jackson panicking aside, the result is
actually phonier and reminds one of the broadcast/network prints of Paul
Verhoeven’s initially NC-17 disaster Showgirls where the topless dancers
(of which there were many) have digital bras on throughout. In both cases, they look like bad bra ads.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a bit better, but a DTS mix
would have made this film more fun for home playback. The score by DEVO genius and veteran mark Mothersbaugh brings
this up another notch, making for an interesting commercial release all
around. Extras also include a Lohan
Music Video with the film, director Angela Robinson’s audio commentary, three
featurettes, a semi-complete alternate opening credits sequence that should
have been finished and used as the beginning of the end credits, deleted scenes
and bloopers that are edited together in a way that is a nice change of pace. This DVD of Herbie Fully Loaded may
not be too loaded, but it is not bad and if things go right, a fun
counterculture hero may be on its way to a comeback.
- Nicholas Sheffo
