Fast Facts

Title: Herbie Rides Again Director: Robert Stevenson Year: 1974 Run time: 1hr 28

Background Info

We watched the first movie as a group, participating in the Sidepodfilmclub and enjoying the live comments. I would never really have thought of looking at any sequels (although I have unfortunately seen Fully Loaded as well), but the iPlayer appear to have something of a Herbie marathon going on with all four original films available to view. I probably won’t have time to see them all but I made a start.

Live Blog

0:39 - The best bit about old films is how inconsistent the shots are to each other - like they were shot in completely different times, different cameras, etc, etc. 1:34 - It’s a very destructive start to a film. I’m assuming these are not all in the same place, else there’ll be nothing left! 2:50 - He’s right, the Colosseum would make a mega shopping centre. 5:59 - “give out awards to a lot of strange ducks.” I like that. Strange ducks. 7:03 - Cigars are so weird. They always look too big for people’s mouths. 8:59 - Is that Herbie I spy? 10:38 - There’s more than one item with personality like Herbie? Wow! 14:55 - “You stubborn bucket of bolts.” 17:30 - Is this chicken jousting with cars a real thing because it’s kinda crazy! 20:08 - I don’t think I could cope with a restaurant where the waiters have to tie a bib on you. 21:14 - “I don’t understand why you hit him with a boiled lobster.” Amazing line. 23:21 - A montage of the previous film. Interesting way to fill a couple of minutes. 34:52 - Mr Hawk is not having a very good day. It’s never a smart move to annoy the traffic commissioner. 37:53 - Herbie has the edge going round and round a multi-storey car park entrance, being smaller than those chasing him. 39:57 - That might be the least believable thing I’ve ever seen. 45:51 - Herbie is a boat as well? Maybe James Bond could have used him instead of that famous car. 55:39 - They’re not exactly subtle - a big ol’ tram car with heaps of furniture running down the road. 57:29 - I think if you go out with someone who hit you with a lobster on your first date, then you can probably get through anything. 1:03:59 - Uh oh, falling down in the foam is a sure fire way of getting run over! 1:05:13 - “There must be some way to make this car behave.” Not Herbie, I’m afraid. 1:10:20 - Hehe, that’s genius. 1:13:30 - He’s even risking having another meal with her. No lobsters this time. 1:21:34 - Lots of Herbies!

Conclusions

It wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen, but it did seem to strip away the essence of Herbie completely. Yes, it makes sense that he would look after a little old lady as best as possible, and he is certainly the kind of car to encourage a relationship and nudge it along if he can. But he’s a racing car and the only bit of actual racing we saw was a weird game of chicken, and then chasing a man onto the ledge of a tall building. Very odd. I quite liked the two main characters though (the man and woman, not Herbie and the old lady.)

**Rating: **²⁄₅