Film Review: Why Herbie Goes Bananas Is One of the Worst Films Ever Made
I very much doubt this needs to be said, but don’t waste your time. They say bad things come in threes, but whoever said that never saw the fourth film in the Herbie series. It’s awful. The story’s awful. The acting’s awful. The concept’s awful. And I never thought I’d say this, but even Herbie’s awful. It’s like they just showed up everyday on set and winged it (and not in the good way that Christopher Guest and his cohorts do in Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman) with no thought to continuity, or entertainment value, or even just plain old common decency.
What is Herbie Goes Bananas About?
The story, if you can even call it that, revolves around in Jim Douglas’s racecar driver nephew, Pete (Stephen W. Burns [The Thorn Birds]), and his best friend, D.J. (Charles Martin Smith [The Untouchables]), traveling down to Mexico to retrieve Herbie, who Douglas passed down to Pete (why is Herbie left in a junkyard in Mexico? Good question). Along the way, they have a run-in with a prepubescent orphaned Mexican pickpocket named Paco (Joaquin Garay III [Emergency Room]), who in turn has a run-in with three counterfeiters, Prindle (John Vernon [Animal House]), Sheppard (Richard Jaeckel [Starman]), Quinn (Alex Rocco [Get Shorty]), discovering their plans in the process. So, the boys…
