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

When you have Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman and can't get laughs, that's quite a problem. These two Veterans of Mel Brooks films were two of the funniest character comics the movies has ever known, and in the fourth "Love Bug/Herbie" film, they lack the type of writing that they needed to really stand out and create the type of eccentric characters that they've become known for. Herbie has been passed on to the nephew of Dean Jones' character, Stephen W. Burns, and along with Charles Martin Smith, arrives in Puerto Vallarta to claim it. They end up on a cruise ship to Rio De Janeiro where Burns begins to court Leachman's niece, the bland Elyssa Davalos. Joaquin Garay III is a sweet scene stealing pickpocket who stows away on board, befriending Herbie and creating all sorts of mayhem.

It's a lavish looking production, but that doesn't make it's funny or memorable. Korman, as the ship's captain, does his typical Carol Burnett Show schtick, but at least they had good writing there. Leachman does have one funny moment when she try to use her female allure to present Hernia from being tossed overboard, while Garay tries to get sympathy for his little thief by having tears when that occurs. His calling Herbie 'Ocho" is cute however, but aren't most ethnic kids adorable on screen even if they are picking pockets?

John Vernon, best known as the dean from "Animal House", play another one of his deliciously pompous authority figures, while Richard Jaeckel is wasted as his right-hand man. There are a lot of familiar character performers here including Fritz Feld and Vito Scotti, but everybody is pretty much over shadowed by the location footage which includes a trip through the Panama Canal, something that Herbie gets to do after he's given the big old toss. An attempt for a hit song fails big time with the tune completely cloying and instantly forgettable. So while there are a few funny and cute moments, the film becomes cumbersome after a while, it begins outwearing its welcome long before they get to the bull fight finale that's just oh so precious.

It was thought the Herbie phenomenon had finally run its course with Herbie Goes Bananas. It turned out only that the franchise just took a quarter century hiatus.

In this film Herbie has been given over to Stephen W. Burns and his mechanic Charles Martin Smith by previous owner whom we all know was Dean Jones. Of course he did it without telling nephew Burns or Smith about Herbie's capabilities. A bit of time with him and they really do believe that he can win the Grand Prix at Rio.

But before that the little bug gets involved with some counterfeiters played by John Vernon, Richard Jaeckel, and Alex Rocco, a little boy who calls him OCHO played by Joaquin Garay, and the pretentious captain of a cruise ship in Harvey Korman who has the best performance in the film. Burns gets himself involved in a shipboard romance with Elyssa Davalos who is accompanied by her chaperon aunt Cloris Leachman. Korman and Leachman get a little something going themselves though what she sees in him is beyond me. Maybe she just likes the uniform.

Herbie Goes Bananas has some nice location cinematography in the Panama Canal, Tijuana, and Guadalajara in Mexico. And it has two good scenes with Herbie walking the plank as per Captain Korman's orders and later on in a corrida facing a bull with Leachman and Korman inside. The rest of the time it moves at a snail's pace, odd for a Volkswagen that's supposed to win Grand Prix events.

By the way little Joaquin Garay calls him Ocho because he adds the five and three painted on Herbie's side and that's eight in Spanish. So why didn't he just call him Cincuenta Y Tres?