Nice effects though.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

From my favorite movies..

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

'Herbie Goes Bananas' is a severely injusticed and misunderstood light-hearted comedy. The major mistake of this film was coming after the 3 older Herbie's films, which sealed its doom from the very start. Had it been made before them and maybe things would have been different, it probably would have been more successful and appreciated. But then we wouldn't have Joaquin Garay III in it. Back when the 1st Herbie film 'The Love Bug' came out (1968), Joaquin Garay III was just coming to our world. Without taking off merit to other kids, I don't know if this movie would have been so good without Joaquin Garay III. He cheers me up so much in this movie.This film is so unique and feels so different from the previous ones that it's more than just another sequel. I think of it almost as one that doesn't belong to the same "family" of movies.This movie is a jewel. I dare to say it's worth "gold". They don't make them like this anymore. Now there are a few minor flaws but otherwise there is lots to like: it's delightful, charming, timeless, entertaining, nostalgic and the way the story is told is funny. There are lots of moments of great fun, but really funny humor (classic humor) and absolutely no dirty humor.Concerning the soundtrack, the only song I find nothing special is "Look at me". Aside that, I adore the cheer song "I found a new friend" and the cheer music with no singing played at the opening credits and other parts.The locations are a major appeal: beautiful, desirable and exotic destinations like Mexico and Panama, perfect for some unforgettable Summer vacations and even better if it's in a voyage by cruise ship.Harvey Korman portrays the pirate maniac Captain Blythe - crazy but funny at the same time. The actors who play the bad guys are pretty good either. Stephen W. Burns makes a very convincing Pete Stancheck.Joaquin Garay III is excellent in his overactive performance as cute little Paco and his chemistry with Herbie is perfect. There's something special about this unusual friendship between this lovable but mischievous little boy and the world's most charismatic Volkswagen Beetle. The way how Paco and Herbie communicate with each other is funny and reminds me of "Pete's Dragon" because we can't understand the dragon's language but the boy does and continues talking to him normally as if it's no big deal to understand. The same happens to Herbie and Paco.Herbie is called "Ocho" by Paco because he doesn't know the car's real name and misunderstands the meaning of the number 53. Apparently he interprets them as separate numbers, possibly because of that line in the middle of the car's hood, which results in one number at each side. What he does is plain and simple: he adds both numbers et voilà!A very appropriate movie for children, with everything they can wish in a movie and no inappropriate stuff for them. It's a shame that children of this generation do not appreciate this kind of movies so beloved by children of my generation. Despite being very childish, it's also very appropriate for adults, as long they appreciate good old classics and have no qualms with this one in particular.Title in Portugal: 'As Novas Diabruras de Herbie'.

Low Bottom Feeder final sequel to the Herbie the Love Bug series, the Spanish version albeit. This was playing on Turner Classic Movies channel yesterday and I still can't figure out how it got on there in the first place. Certainly not a classic but the exact opposite -total bomb. Even the title is stupid,the car goes bananas in every movie it's in however there is a scene in which Herbie is covered in bananas but it takes place near the end of the movie and lasts about 5 minutes. The plot involves a very irritating young Mexican boy ,bumbling crooks, a desperate pathetic Helen Roper type love starved slut played by Cloris Leachman and her niece, a goofy ships captain and two young typical guys who want to race the car. The young Mexican boy befriends Herbie who by the way never gets called Herbie except for one time in the beginning of the movie. The cars number is 53 so of course in Spanish 53 always means 5+3 ,stupid. Now we have the very irritating boy yelling ocho(Spanish for 8 at least 200 times in the movie). Come on ocho , ocho ocho. Good god I wanted to sew his lips shut. They race around the world on cruise ships and through ghetto South America , with Cloris Leachman trying to get into Harvey Korman's pants in these stupid subplot scenes which have nothing to do with the main plot of the movie and this is a Disney flick?. It gets even worse, why do some people think the bull fighting scene is funny etc, it's very stupid with the car holding a cape in its hood and driving around backwards with the bull chasing it ,meanwhile the people inside yell and scream and the kid yells toro ocho toro ocho ,, how can i keep watching. The kid also plays taxi driver and becomes the race car driver too , oh sure yeah ,disney was on something for this movie- most kids i watched it with when i was young were probably bored. In the end , a very bad irritating finale to the series. Harvey Korman is wasted in a role so beneath him its sick, he is like a stupid Captain Stubing love boat style with the worst most unfunny dialog(the writers should have been shot for the preschool humor), the rest of the cast chews scenery and the stupid horny Cloris Leachman overacting every time she looks Kormans way as if she thinks Korman would want anything to do with her gross come-ons. I've never liked her in anything shes been in, shes a terrible actress, how she won awards who knows. After the final scene ,we get treated to a very syrupy irritating ending song about friendship complete with a Spanish word thrown in every few verses like i bet you a banana mañana ,charro, amigo etc. Is this Spanglish? Oh and did i mention the above bananas are also sold by the kid to passersby, yeah id like to buy bananas that were touching a smelly rusty car and the fact they drove 600 miles in the hot sun with the bananas on the outside of the car. these little sub-scenes added no doubt to amuse small children and annoy parents. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone unless you want to turn your kids into numb minded dregs. Of course this may keep your 3 y/o amused for ten minutes while you run to the video store to shoot the owners for carrying this movie.

Jim Douglas has long retired and has left his car to Pete Staniczek as long as he collects it from South America. So Pete and engineer Davy Johns collect the car to enter it into a race, but they first have to contend with little pickpocket Paco. Despite the look of the car, they take it on the cruise ship with them when they leave – not knowing that Paco has sneaked onboard as well to escape the wrath of one of his victims who are part of a gang planning to steal Aztec gold.This was supposedly the final entry in the series but I suppose that the new 2005 film means that it is number 4 of 5 (so far). The characters and locations have all changed but essentially the formula is still the same – physical comedy from Herbie, romance from the driver, a crime subplot although no race as such. In this regard it doesn't do anything particularly special or go anywhere other than you expect it to, but it is inoffensive and not annoying or boring. The comedy is so-so, with plenty of Herbie action for kids (apparently they went through over 20 cars making this) and acceptable humour for adults.The cast are mixed – in some regards they carry the movie but in others they are terrible. The lead cast are mostly poor. Burns shows how enjoyable Jones was because he is totally lacking in charisma or screen presence. Smith does his best to impersonate the usual engineer sidekick (Knotts) by mugging and pulling faces but it never gets past the stage of impersonation to become his own work. Davalos is terribly dull, although her wooden, uninspired delivery does quite compliment Burns. Garay (the third, would you believe) is OK but if you hate "cute kids" in movies then you'll hate his squeaky little performance; however I suppose it is quite cool that the car gets to act opposite an orphan – very like Chaplin. Thank goodness for the support cast then, because they do a lot of the work that the lead actors fail to do; not saying that they are that good but at least they are lively and interesting. Korman overacts with little material to work with but he is very funny at times. Leachman is a lot more by-the-numbers and not as interesting. The criminal gang don't have much to do but the faces will be interesting for adults – Jaeckel and Rocco for example.Overall, this is a fairly obvious entry in the series but it is still enjoyable. The overuse of the kid will put many adults off because it brings out some horrible, cloying sentiment but mostly the film is lively and quite enjoyable. Children will enjoy it and adults will be able to watch it without feeling bored.

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