In its day, of course, Herbie: Fully Loaded was pretty much panned and/or written off as a noticeable dip in Lindsay Lohan’s then ever-rising “teen queen” stock (a dip that would plummet even further with 2006’s Just My Luck). And it’s not an untrue assessment, but it’s also fair to say that much of the criticism surrounding it at the time was directed at Lohan and her then-germinal “365 party girl” stylings. In honor of its recent twentieth anniversary, however, the film has been getting some noticeable love (ergo, retroactive vindication) on social media.
But when the movie was released on June 24, 2005, it was in the wake of numerous headlines poking fun at the fact that Lohan herself was the “fully loaded” one throughout most of the filming. This included a brief stint of mocking Lohan for being hospitalized toward the end of 2004 as a result of “exhaustion” (in Hollywood speak, that was code for “too much drinking and drugging” as far as the media was concerned).
It was all part and parcel of the toxic patriarchal society that reached a new apex in the mid-00s, as Lohan and her fellow sisters-in-being-tabloid-fodder, Paris and Britney, learned the hard way. Particularly in the aftermath of TMZ’s founding in ‘05, the same year as Herbie’s release. Along with the year that George W. Bush was sworn in for a second term, the year Michael Jackson was declared “not guilty” of child molestation, the year Lohan and Brad Pitt were photographed together at the premiere of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the year the tabloid headlines about Lohan ramped up (including the Star cover story titled, “Wasting Away!” [not to be confused with the “Wasted Again!” headline of 2011]). Indeed, “Lohan fever” (though that feels like too strong a term) in 2005 was enough to prompt a paparazzo to deliberately run into the back of her car just to snap a photo. Such behavior, of course, was all in keeping with the “treating women like objects” vibe of the decade.
Alas, toxic masculinity hasn’t truly “disappeared” since the days of Herbie: Fully Loaded, but it’s been “polished up.” Then again, the presence of a certain Orange Being as the current president indicates there’s been no polishing whatsoever (for, as the saying goes, “You can’t polish a turd”—and toxic masculinity is definitely that). Though, in Hollywood, there have been some vague attempts, particularly after the #MeToo movement of 2017. Unfortunately, any “strides” made by the industry have been largely stalled/entirely undone in accordance with the pendulum swinging back toward the favor of “male supremacy” (again, especially because of the current administration and the acolytes that voted for its formation). Ergo, the existence of a movie like F1 as the summer blockbuster of 2025 (gone are the ephemeral days of Barbie in 2023). Because, yes, even Brad Pitt’s own brand of toxic masculinity, complete with abuse against his children and ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, has been mostly swept under the rug for the sake of preserving his “icon” status. For it seems the last thing that “the audience” can take is the decimation of another “Old” Hollywood actor (à la Johnny Depp).
As such, viewers won’t find Sonny Hayes (Pitt) saying something like, “And when the women give you their numbers, get photos this time… I do enough charity work already.” This being what the requisite “villain” of Herbie: Fully Loaded, Trip Murphy (Matt Dillon), tells his “tech assistant,” Crash (Jimmi Simpson), at an event he foists himself onto for the sake of publicity. Because, to reiterate, 2005 (/2004, when the movie was actually filmed) was a prime time for misogyny to reign supreme and unchecked. Just as it has started to yet again in the mid-2020s. In fact, many of the “history repeating” elements happening right now are from the 00s, including the Orange One’s insistence that another country is harboring weapons of mass destruction and that’s why it deserves to be bombed. Not to mention that Lohan’s next movie is going to be Freakier Friday, a sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday. Marking her first right proper studio-backed movie in ages (and no, one isn’t counting the cameo she made in the 2024 edition of Mean Girls), it’s yet another indication of Lohan attempting to recapture the “glory days” of her career before Herbie: Fully Loaded heralded its downward spiral.
At the time of the movie’s release, however, Lohan responded to the negativity surrounding her choice to “regress” by starring in yet another Disney movie after the success of Mean Girls (a Paramount movie) as follows: “This is an important role for me because it allows my audience to grow up with me. In my last movie, I was in high school. In this movie, I’ve just graduated from college. That makes this a key transition role in my career.” If that was her logic in choosing to play the two-dimensional part of Maggie Peyton, well, then it’s no wonder Herbie seemed to lack the same, let’s say, “emotional depth” of previous Lohan roles (even Lola Steppe in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen).
Apart from Lohan’s “reasoning” for taking an interest in the movie, the early 00s were also a time when Volkswagen was having a bit of a moment again thanks to the reintroduction of the Beetle, which became the go-to car choice of every “it girl” (of a non-famous variety—though the 1999 video for Mandy Moore’s “Candy” features the VW Beetle prominently…even if the logos were removed). Being “on-trend” in that sense, the car itself does prove to be endearing and “sweet”—when it’s not being moody and erratic. Indeed, perhaps David Cronenberg’s Crash has nothing on Herbie: Fully Loaded in terms of treating a hunk of metal like a living, breathing thing. And it is…a sentient anthropomorphic car. Which automatically makes it more impressive than anything Sonny or his new teammate, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), could drive in F1.
As for Pearce, in certain regards, he’s the Trip of the movie. For both drivers seem to be in it for the glory, the money and the endorsement deals. Whereas Sonny and Maggie are doing it because 1) it’s in their blood and 2) they can’t seem to live without it. Except, in Maggie’s case, she’s being prevented from her passion not by a long-term injury, but by her father, Ray (Michael Keaton—yes, Herbie does have quite a cast, all things considered). For, despite being over eighteen, Ray still insists he has jurisdiction over her so long as she’s living under his roof for the summer. Not only that, but he’s also the big boss of Team Peyton in the NASCAR races, and he chooses to relegate his eldest son, Ray Jr. (Breckin Meyer), to being their “star” driver—even though he’s quite bad at it. This, too, is where Herbie at least has something more political to say about professional racecar driving, acknowledging its sexism in ways that F1 glosses over (apart from giving Kate McKenna [Kerry Condon] a “nod” for being the technical director of the APXGP team).
During one scene in particular, Ray insists to his daughter, “You’re not gettin’ behind the wheel.” Maggie demands, “Why? Because I’m a girl? Dad, I’ve had one crash. Ray’s had dozens.” Ray replies, “It’s different.” Maggie pushes, “The only difference is he has your support. What’s really your problem with me racing?” And then, as though this answer is somehow supposed to make it not about Maggie being a woman, Ray confesses, “Because you’re the spitting image of your mom. And…I can’t lose her twice.” Selfish much?
While, despite being the “same thing” to those on the outside looking in, Formula One and NASCAR are worlds apart—one need only look at the demographics of the fans to decipher that. And yet, both Herbie and F1 have “shitkicker” music as a key part of their soundtrack (in Herbie, for example, it’s Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” Boston’s “More Than A Feeling” [except it’s performed by Ingram Hill], Van Halen’s “Jump” and Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend”). Which perhaps ultimately says that both sets of fan groups are the same. At least if the Formula One fans being referred to are from the U.S.
And one thing that unites these two movies about NASCAR and Formula One racing respectively is that each knows it must offer up a romantic plotline in order to satisfy the audience members who showed up for something more than racing. In Herbie, Kevin (Justin Long), a former high school classmate of Maggie’s, fits the bill as her romantic interest. Besides that, he’s a mechanic, and Herbie needs plenty of free repairs. Although their attraction is obvious and the two spend most of their time together (including going to see a drive-in movie where Scary Movie 2 is the featured film—incidentally, Lohan would later appear in Scary Movie 5, signaling yet another nadir in her career), it takes all the way until the final act for them to become, like, boyfriend-girlfriend. Sonny doesn’t wait that long to make his feelings known for Kate (perhaps some indication of “maturity” and “being an adult”), taking things to the next level in her Las Vegas hotel room around the midpoint of F1.
It bears noting, of course, Pitt and Condon’s age difference in real life (nineteen years) is further proof that little has really changed on the misogyny and double standard front in Hollywood. Save for the fact that executives think any woman over forty is fair game for pairing with a man considered older, but not outright “old” (in other words, Condon could just as easily be paired with Pitt as she could Anthony Hopkins). Because no man in H’wood is ever truly considered that. In any case, the age difference trope applied to Lohan and Long as well, with the former being eighteen to Long’s twenty-six at the time of filming. Funnily enough, Maggie at one point tells Herbie of the Beetle (a.k.a. “younger model”) he’s trying to pursue, “She’s too young for you.” Which is rich coming from someone who was dating Wilmer Valderrama at the time.
In truth, Maggie is often rather mean and dismissive toward Herbie, with no respect for his (very legitimate) feelings as she says, “I don’t have time for this right now, we need to get out there and beat Trip. Just get a grip, okay? You’re a car. You do what I tell you to do, all right?” For the most part, Sonny acts the same way toward the McLaren MCL60 provided for him by the APXGP owner, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem). As a matter of fact, when he finds that it doesn’t “act right” for him, he demands that Kate make certain amendments to it so that he can better “wield” it.
But, in Herbie: Fully Loaded’s scenario, the whole time, the car is genuinely doing all the work, magically fighting against every “ailment” that would fell any other ordinary vehicle. And yet, at the end, it’s an oil leak that threatens to take it down. Of all the things. Even so, thanks to its magical properties and emotional connection to Maggie, it wins her the big race (the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series). So, in a way, maybe Herbie: Fully Loaded is just as sexist as F1. For it posits that the only way a woman could be that good at racing is if the car was supernatural.
