La coccinelle à Mexico

The formerly jaunty little bug is dragged out for another run, this time a very feeble attempt at a franchise cash-in. It appears that the suits at Disney knew Herbie was due for the parts yard, and spent as little as possible to churn this out, hoping to make a quick buck off the few people who would see it on name recognition alone. Make the kids watch something else.

Couldn't they just have let poor old "Herbie" go get pampered in a motor museum somewhere? Plenty of Castrol GTX and some luxury screen wash? Nope - we had to drag him along to get involved in some dodgy Mexican counterfeit malarkey. He's been inherited by "Pete" (Stephen W. Burns) who is frankly a little disappointed that he's not a Ferrari. Together with his pal "D. J." (Charles Martin Smith) they soon discover that "Herbie" is a car with a mind of his own, and so determine to enter him in a race in Brazil. It's on their way that they get hustled by the hugely annoying "Paco" (Joaquin Garay III) and in trying to get their wallets back, discover they are now immersed in a crime ring led by "Prindle" (John Vernon) who is after a secret photograph the got pinched by the same urchin from his own wallet. The fleeing child takes refuge in "Herbie" who takes refuge on an ocean liner heading to Panama. This voyage gives "Aunt Louise" (Cloris Leachman) a chance to pair off handsome "Pete" with her bookish neice "Melissa" (Elyssa Davalos) and pretty soon we are all juggling way too many plates as this glorified edition of the "Dukes of Hazard" fails to get out of second gear. There are a few moments that raise a smile from the Bligh-esque ship's captain "Blythe" who has a hang 'em and flog 'em ethos that could have been usefully used on the writers of this banal and unnecessary outing for our VW that I found really struggled. It's peppered with the usual car chase and slapstick antics, but please now, no more....

This was the last Herbie movie to my knowledge. If it wasn't the last, it was defintely the worst. What else do you call a movie when a Mexican child calls Herbie "ocho" ( he adds up Herbie famous number "53" and gets eight). Then this Mexican child does a horrible paint job and starts using Herbie to run a taxi service. In my humble opinion the only reason to watch this film is to see what sort cellouiod trash Disney was putting out before Michael Eisner took over.

The only good joke in this movie is the inside one: when Cloris Leachman's character sends Herbie for help, Harvey Korman turns to her and says, "It's a car, lady, not Lassie!" Leachman was part of the cast of LASSIE in 1957-1958, playing the original Ruth Martin. One wonders if the joke was specifically inserted with her in mind.

Poor Herbie went through as many owners as Lassie, too. This one is particularly lackluster, although the child lead is cute. The two young men who now apparently own Herbie don't even have enough screen presence to overshadow a small boy. On the other hand, Leachman and Korman must have needed the bucks.

I love Herbie - it's hard not to. However I can recognise how the four movies gradually get worse. This was the worst one. Now I'm not saying it was terrible, and I don't agree with a comment above that says "make the kids watch something else", but it was a disappointing effort.

The Love Bug is by far the best, closely followed by Herbie Rides Again. Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo is OK, but Bananas is not very good at all. If you're not a fan of Herbie movies, you won't like this.

5/10