Date:01/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/08/01/stories/2005080113880200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

The Bug is back

BEETLE BUG: Justin Long and Lindsay Lohan in `Herbie: Fully Loaded'

Film: Herbie: Fully Loaded (English)

Director: Angela Robinson

Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Justin Long, Matt Dillon, Michael Keaton

The almost-human Volkswagen Beetle, Herbie, first unveiled by Disney in the 1963 film "The Love Bug" and reprised in a trio of sequels in the 1970s and 80s, returns to delight a new generation of young film- goers. It's the same old car with a mind of its own, even his number plate is the same, but he is rotting away in a junkyard till Maggie (Lindsay Lohan), the teenaged daughter of a famous racing driver, (Michael Keaton), buys him for $ 75 and entrusts him to her friend Kevin (Justin Long) to restore.

He must have done a good job because Herbie is all ready to race again, even if the opposition includes sneaky champions like Trip (Matt Dillon). Maggie defies her dad to enter the big Nascar Race and this being a Disney film in the old mould, we need hardly add that she wins (or rather Herbie makes it happen). Younger film-goers might recognize Ms. Lohan as the young girl who played the twins in Disney's remake of "The Parent Trap".

A.P.