Underplayed Gems

The Love Bug (1997)

The Love Bug poster
Directed by
Peyton Reed
Genre
fantasy
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 28m
Rated
PG
Rating
5.7 of 10 from 153 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A magical Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie helps his new owner win races and battle a sinister black car called Horace. This TV movie mixes a fresh story with elements from earlier Herbie films.

lightheartedwhimsicalnostalgicplayfuldarkly comicfast-pacedfun

What happens

The Love Bug is a 1997 American adventure comedy television film directed by Peyton Reed and written by Ryan Rowe. The fifth installment in the Herbie film series, the film is part remake and part sequel, in that the events of the original 1968 The Love Bug film are repeated while the storyline plots to follow Herbie Goes Bananas (1980). It premiered on ABC in the anthology television series The Wonderful World of Disney on November 30, 1997. The film stars Bruce Campbell and includes a special appearance by Dean Jones, star of the original The Love Bug, tying it to the previous films, while introducing an evil, black Volkswagen Beetle named Horace, the Hate Bug, giving the film a much darker tone than the other films. The film marks the first appearance of Herbie in fifteen years, following the television series Herbie, the Love Bug (1982), which ran for five episodes. The Love Bug was followed by the theatrically released Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.