Herbie Goes Bananas
April 30, 2009 by Model Cars · Leave a Comment
Set in exotic locations in Central America, the internationally renowned Herbie, everyone’s favorite “love bug,” demonstrates his special brand of “car-isma” and high-octane humor in this action-packed, stunt-filled comedy outing. The fun begins when Herbie sets sail for Rio de Janeiro’s Grande Premio racing competition with his two new owners. En route, they get sidetracked by a smuggling syndicate, pestered by a pint-sized pickpocket, and bullied by a raging bull. Laughter shifts into high gear in this zany Disney comedy!
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars one too many sequels
This is what happens when you make one too many sequels of a popular family movie. Eventually, there’s the temptation to dumb it down.
The nephew of Herbie’s original owner goes to Mexico to pick up the little car with a friend, hoping to take it down to Brazil to enter a race. Unfortunately, they run into a young pickpocket, Paco (Joaquin Garay III), and end up too broke to get to the race.
So on the cruise ship, they befriend a woman (Cloris Leachman) and her studious daughter, and the woman agrees to sponsor them.
Unfortunately, that’s the closest Herbie gets to the racetrack in this movie.
Meanwhile, Paco’s gotten into worse trouble, picking the wrong pocket, and Herbie befriends him, and most of the movie is hijinks with Herbie, now called “Ocho,” and Paco.
The brightest spot in the movie is when the cruise ship captain (Harvey Korman) and Cloris Leachman’s character join Ocho and Paco in a bullfight.
The kid, I suppose, was supposed to be cutely mischievous, but I just found him annoying (pickpocketing is cute?). I wasn’t alone. My sons were very vocal in their dislike of Paco.
I never understand why they do this: putting a kid in the place of an adult role. It hardly ever works. The original movie and the first few sequels were good and very funny, had semi-realistic adult characters, and–*golly*–kids still liked them. I suppose it’s a matter of taste–I don’t seem to share Hollywood’s fascination with obnoxiously precocious children.
4 Stars The Love Bug 4: Fiesta at Sea!
In his wildest adventure yet, “Herbie Goes Bananas” takes everyone’s favorite little Volkswagen beetle south of the border and on a high seas adventure to protect a little orphan boy and save some ancient Incan artifacts from the clutches of greedy criminals! This 4th Herbie film, the 3rd and last of the “classic” Love Bug sequels, begins in Mexico, where we meet Jim Douglas’s nephew Pete, a wanna-be racecar driver himself, and his mechanic, D.J., two young Americans just arriving in Puerto Vallarta. They’re there to pick up Herbie, the VW racing sensation that Jim has turned over to nephew Pete in the hopes that the car and his new driver can help each other by becoming a winning racing team. Pete and D.J. intend to take the little car, via cruise ship, to win a big race in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Of course, upon seeing that Herbie is just a little `63 bug, their confidence sinks. It doesn’t take long, however, for Herbie to show them his true potential, and Herbie is being loaded onto the S.S. Princess before we know it! Unfortunately, not before Pete has his wallet stolen by a poor orphan boy named Paco. Little Paco is a sweet and lovable kid that knows how to charm the tourists, but he also knows how to get into big trouble. Not only does he steal Pete’s wallet, he pickpockets from some dangerous criminals as well! And, somehow, he gets the contents of the stolen wallets mixed up! Unknowingly, Pete and D.J. are walking around with some very incriminating film in their possession after Pete regains his property. Meanwhile, Paco has stowed away onboard the S.S. Princess in the front-end trunk of his new friend, Herbie the car!
While at sea, things get really crazy! Pete and D.J. get into a world of trouble with the captain of the Princess, Captain Blythe, when Herbie and stowaway Paco are caught causing trouble not once, but twice! The old-fashioned Captain is so angry at Herbie that he has the little car rolled off a plank and into the ocean, where it seems Herbie will be lost forever! Meanwhile, Paco is taken into custody, and Pete and D.J. are left at the first port of call along with a wealthy woman called Aunt Louise and her gorgeous but bookish niece, Melissa. The pair of female cruise passengers got caught up in the whole mess when D.J. convinced Pete to woo Melissa in a successful attempt to gain Aunt Louise’s financial support as sponsor of their little racing car. Now, our entire cast is abandoned in South America, and everything seems pretty hopeless. That is, until Paco spots a rusty wreck of a Herbie floating in from the ocean. With the help of some untrustworthy locals, Paco brings Herbie in. The little car does not look well, but the pair manage to make a getaway before the villagers cut him up for scrap! Herbie is soon feeling better again, though he looks awful. Paco paints “Taxi” on his sides and the two prepare to start a humble life together, but their plans are cut short when the dangerous criminals finally catch up to the little boy. They’re after their film and send Paco on a mission to get it back, or else they’ll be the ones turning Herbie into scrap! Now, Paco has to find Pete and D.J. again so he can return the stolen film; stolen film that shows the location of a secret, unknown trove of ancient Incan treasures! Surprisingly (or not), Captain Blythe and the ladies are soon caught back into the mess as Herbie accidentally hijacks the captain and Aunt Louise during his escape from the vicious criminals! It’s all a crazy and hilarious mix-up that doesn’t end until an insane bullfight and a kooky airplane encounter get the better of the bad guys! And, yes, there are bananas involved!
“Herbie Goes Bananas” is easily my favorite of the “classic” Herbie sequels! Okay, this 1980 entry is the most “kids’ movie” of the lot, made all the more obvious by the Sesame Street sounding songs in the background, but it also holds true as the funniest sequel of the bunch! How could it not be with the likes of Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman in the cast? Harvey really does steal the funniest moments as the irrepressible Captain Blythe, especially when staving off the hilarious romantic advances of lovestruck Aunt Louise (Cloris Leachman). In fact, a great cast is key to what makes all the Herbie films work so well, and this film has another excellent ensemble! Charles Martin Smith makes a great mechanic sidekick (a tradition in most Herbie films), and Stephen W. Burns’s role as pretty-boy nephew to Dean Jones’s “Love Bug” character, Jim Douglas, is not exactly rocket science, but Burns plays the prince-like Disney hero well and in a likeable way. John Vernon, Alex Rocco, and Richard Jaeckel make for some excellent Disney villains, and Elyssa Davalos is simply an angel as the introverted niece, Melissa, even in her librarian’s best. We even get famous character actor Vito Scotti in a small but side-splitting role! The star of this film though, aside from Herbie the car, is Joaquin Garay III, who plays fast-talking and mischievous, but good-hearted, little Paco. Naturally, there’s no shortage of great Herbie stunts in “Herbie Goes Bananas” either! Probably the most memorable is Herbie’s legendary turn as a matador in a sold-out bull ring! If you’re a fan of Disney’s “The Love Bug,” this is one sequel that you shouldn’t miss, especially if you want to get your small children into the Herbie fan-base. In fact, I can only recommend the newest sequel, “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” with more enthusiasm! Of course, my real recommendation is to pick up the entire “Herbie the Love Bug DVD Collection,” along with “Fully Loaded” on DVD, and the pre-Fully Loaded TV sequel, “The Love Bug,” available only on VHS. All are excellent films, but this one will always hold a special place in my heart from years of watching it on the Disney Channel as a kid and even seeing it in theaters! I even have a little Johnny Lightning “Herbie Goes Bananas” die-cast car with “Taxi” painted on the side and coated in painted on “rust.” I love it! Unfortunately, this is another lackluster Disney DVD release with zero extras and fullscreen formatting. All the more reason to get the boxed set, since the extras on disc two of the original film do make occasional reference to all the pre-Fully Loaded sequels. Whatever you do though, don’t hesitate to pick up “Herbie Goes Bananas” today! Yeah, a widescreen DVD would be nice, but we may never get one, and this film is too good to miss!
4 Stars Herbie Goes Banannas,
Herbie is back in this fun filled movie. I have liked most of the herbie films but i think this one could of been better. in this film it seems they took herbies personality a little bit sour. He dosen’t seem the same happy little Bug that we all know. Don’t get me wrong i like it but it could of been better.
Plot: Jim Douglas the previous owner of Herbie gives Herbie to his nephew. When Jims nephew picks up herbie then the fun starts. Herbie runs into this mexican child who is a pocket theif. the child accidently steals a important piece of papper from some very bad men. And now the men are after him, the child hitches a ride with herbie and they go on a little tour. Can herbie protect this child and stop the villians. Well you know what to do, Rent the movie and find out.
If you liked this movie check out the other Herbie Films
1. The Love Bug
2. Herbie Rides Again
3. Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo
4. Herbie Fully Loaded
5 Stars Nostalgic Fun
Jim’s passed his car onto his nephew for the final of the original four Herbie movies. Pete and his partner DJ pick up Herbie in Mexico, planning to enter in a race in Brazil. What they don’t plan on is getting mixed up with a pickpocket and stow away who has befriended their car. But Paco has crossed some bad men, accidentally stealing their film, the only clue they have to the location of Inca ruins they intend to steal. Can a little car save the day again?
Ok, I admit it. This is by far the weakest of the original Herbie movies. The plot is extremely far fetched with at couple of nice plot holes. So why the five stars? Because watching this movie never fails to bring a smile to my face. It’s probably the one I watched the most growing up, and I just can’t look at it with a critical eye. Beside, any car that would take on an airplane, and win, is ok by me.
The DVD leaves a little to be desired as well. Presented in full frame instead of wide screen, it’s a movie only release.
This movie is best viewed through rose-colored glasses of childhood. Don’t think about it too critically, or you’ll find its flaws. Just sit back and let Herbie take over.
5 Stars The Car with a Personality
I like this movie because it provides humor,comedy, suspense and surprises. It is unpredictable,and also has great effects. The movie is about a car and a boy who are like bestfriends and they both would do anything to help the other. These two characters over come some of the worst obstacles possible.
This movie also exposes some cultural items as well. From time to time you can hear spanish being spoken, and you get to see some of the geographical areas as well. I would recommend this to anyone that is wanting to watch a good, clean family movie. This is a movie that can be watched over and over for generations to come.
7 PROFESSIONAL Variable Speed Polisher Buffer Sander Waxer AUTO CAR BOAT RV 4 Replacement Polishing Bonnets
April 29, 2009 by Model Cars · Leave a Comment
Polish easily with this HEAVY DUTY, PROFESSIONAL 11 AMP Polisher!
Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets Design and Build the Ultimate Car
April 29, 2009 by Model Cars · Leave a Comment
Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets Design and Build the Ultimate Car
For new competitors or seasoned racers, this informative, step-by-step guide reveals all the secrets to building a championship car. This officially licensed product of Boy Scouts of America, and written by a research scientist and father of two undefeated Derby Champs, this valuable and education manual features full-color, easy-to-follow instructions and is perfect for parents and kids alike. “I’ve seen a lot of first-time participants since founding the Pinewood Derby in 1953. If you want to compete successfully your first time out, or improve on last year’s finish, this book is for you.” -Don Murphy, founder of the Pinewood Derby and author of Pinewood, The Story of the Pinewood Derby
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars First Time Derby Car
This book provides information on how to build a pinewood derby car. The tips are easy to follow and most easy to perform. This book is great for first-time derby builders.
5 Stars All you need to help your child WIN the Pinewood Derby!
I’m not the handiest person when it comes to woodworking. This book gives you awesome tips and it puts them in very easy to follow terms with lots of pictures. The book gives three levels of performance. I followed most from the lowest level, and added some from the top two levels as the rules allowed. Much to my pleasant surprise, my son’s car (yes, we worked on it together) won his troop’s Pinewood Derby and came in 3rd at Districts. This book allowed me to be a helpful dad. For that, I’m very grateful.
5 Stars Extremely helpful for novice cub parents
This detailed and easy to read book was helpful for the first year Cub scout parents enetering into the Pinewood Derby. The derby is about parents and sons building a car TOGETHER and “doing your best,” which is why I bought the book. After reading my local rules, I adhered to the book and avoided the nightmare check-in entries I witnessed at the derby. My son didn’t win for speed (he did win best design), but won 2 of 3 heats and most importantly he had fun. I enjoyed watching him and knew our car was competitive and didn’t have to make any last minute adjustments.
5 Stars Good solid book for building a quick car
There is a ton of information on the net about building a fast pinewood derby car. This book covers in pretty good detail most of the common speed tips and construction methods. By following this book and our district’s rules we were able to build several very quick cars. Using the techniciques in this book my son was able to take second in his den and the pack while at the same time setting our pack’s track speed record.
4 Stars Thorough book…an easy read
This is the second book that my wife brought home from the library to assist me in building a car with my son.
Each section is broken down into a basic, intermediate and advanced approach, allowing you to invest as little or as much time as you want into the pursuit.
I actually laid down and read the entire book in one sitting. I highly recommend this book…unless our sons will be racing against one another, in which case I say save your money, this book is a waste of time, all of the tips and tricks will just slow your car down. =)
Viva Las Vegas Blu ray
April 28, 2009 by Model Cars · Leave a Comment
Elvis Presley and vivacious Ann-Margret sizzle in this dazzling funfest that’s brimming with high-voltage musical numbers, roaring race cars and glittery Vegas action. Year: 1963
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars great film!
I love Elvis stuff And this is a must have for Elvis fans Delux Edition is very Clear!!
5 Stars Elvis at his best
This is a great video . I enjoyed the interaction between Ann and Elvis.
They displayed a lot of talent in this video.
5 Stars Awsome!
Viva Las Vegas - the movie, with great musical and dancing numbers with Elvis Presley and Ann Margareth. Awsome!
3 Stars Viva Las Vegas - Blu-ray Info
Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
VC-1 BD-25 / AACS / Advanced Profile 3
Running time: 1:24:54
Feature size: 16,74 GB
Disc size: 17,95 GB
Average video bit rate: 20.42 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 1455 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1455 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio French 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles: English / English SDH / French / Spanish
Number of chapters: 24
#Audio commentary
#Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas - Featurette (20 min)
#Theatrical trailer
5 Stars Blu-Ray Release Sept. 2007
Most everyone is familiar with this movie so I don’t have much in the way of comment except to say that it is a fun bit of Elvis fluff. The remastered and restored blu-ray transfer is outstanding. This, with a widescreed, HD TV very nearly duplicates the theater going experience.
The Machine That Changed the World The Story of Lean Production Toyotas Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry
April 28, 2009 by Model Cars · Leave a Comment
When The Machine That Changed the World was first published in 1990, Toyota was half the size of General Motors. Today Toyota is passing GM as the world’s largest auto maker and is the most consistently successful global enterprise of the past fifty years. This management classic was the first book to reveal Toyota’s lean production system that is the basis for its enduring success.
Now reissued with a new Foreword and Afterword, Machine contrasts two fundamentally different business systems — lean versus mass, two very different ways of thinking about how humans work together to create value. Based on the largest and most thorough study ever undertaken of any industry — MIT’s five-year, fourteen-country International Motor Vehicle Program — this book describes the entire managerial system of lean production.
Nearly twenty years ago, Womack, Jones, and Roos provided a comprehensive description of the entire lean system. They exhaustively documented its advantages over the mass production model pioneered by General Motors and predicted that lean production would eventually triumph. Indeed, they argued that it would triumph not just in manufacturing but in every value-creating activity from health care to retail to distribution.
Today The Machine That Changed the World provides enduring and essential guidance to managers and leaders in every industry seeking to transform traditional enterprises into exemplars of lean success.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Lean foundations
This book contains all the seeds of the Lean Production Ideas. A must for the serious Lean Practitioner. This is the most influential book on the subject. However it needs a great deal of study and deep understanding but it’s worth it for the insight and Lean foundations it provides.
5 Stars The truth about Detroit
If you want to understand why GM, Ford, and Chrysler are doomed and have been doomed for two decades, this is the book.
I’ve worked both for GM (twice) and in Japan for a Japanese automotive supplier, and I can attest that this book really got it right.
Unfortunately, while everyone in Detroit has read this book, they have never followed any of its advice or conclusions. All the talk about restructuring the US automobile manufacturers is simply about reducing costs and not about making better products by working cooperatively with employees, suppliers, dealers, and customers. Instead, Detroit continues to beat up suppliers on price and wonders why their quality is poor, push employees on wages and wonders why employees care little if the company is successful, haggle with their dealer network to push unwanted cars onto unreceptive customers.
We can bail out the industry financially, but until they learn to compete with the Japanese, they are doomed to decreasing relevance and increasing losses.
This book isn’t exciting to read, but nearly 20 years since its original publication, it remains as relevant as ever.
5 Stars Results Matter
A landmark study. The agony and failures of the big three Detroit automakers, compared to the continuing success of Toyota and other innovative companies like Honda, demonstrate the effectiveness of what the authors describe as Lean Production. A ‘must read’ to understand some of the history of how their products came to be consistently rated at the top in quality, engineering, reliability, and dependability.
5 Stars Becoming Lean and Mean!
Lean production (now frequently called Lean manufacturing) has melded into several industries here in the United States, but back when this book was written, it was just catching on. I read the book in 2000. Many of the concepts are still worthwhile in this book, both for the historical significance as well as the lean ideas presented.
The Machine that Changed the World is a fascinating book that teaches what the Japanese learned and how to apply their ideas to the US auto market. Competition is always tough, but these tools provides a competitive advantage to those companies who embrace them and make them part of doing business. Not all ideas are applicable to every application, but there are plenty of diamonds to be farmed here.
Well trained employees, a commitment to excellence by everyone (from the janitor to the CEO), teamwork, flexibility of skill sets, and learning lessons from successes and failures are all important elements of lean manufacturing. Setting up manufacturing lines efficiently, working closely with suppliers, line smoothing, encouraging innovative and cost saving suggestions and much more are also critical lean concepts.
Lean manufacturing doesn’t happen overnight and a company and its employees must be diligent in their efforts to put high quality products at reasonable prices out the door.
The Machine that Changed the World is highly rated by many people and should be. It has timeless ideas to produce higher quality products and recommends never being completely satisfied. Well written and researched, this is a top notch book!
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
5 Stars Really good book
I have read a lot of the so called quality books, and have a master’s degree in the field, and I have found few books that had this kind of relevance to how things are produced and why they work or don’t work. More importantly, this is one of the few ‘academic studies’ (I recall this one came out of MIT) that is actually clearly written and straightforward.
Yes, Toyota is much of the focus in this book and it can sometimes seem to border on the PR level, but that doesn’t take away from the information in this book. Having had access to most of the auto manufacturers when this study was done, and seeing the nuts and bolts, it is what people do wrong at other places that is as important as what Toyota had been doing right (a trend, I might add, that in recent years has dimmed, Toyota has had embarassing quality faults recently). The book does mention that what Toyota “pioneered” was not entirely homegrown, many of the techniques existed, but Toyota was unique in the auto world in the number of things they chose to adopt (as a counterpoint, when the 70’s hit and the US auto makers started having real competition, they hired Dr. Edwards Demming as a consultant, he told them many of the things that this book points out and they basically paid the check, used it for PR about how they were serious, and ignored him).
And these are not new issues and continue to plague companies, fallacies like:
1)”It is the fault of the labor force”..while the UAW has not exactly been cutting edge, what this book points out is something known in quality circles for years, that most of the problems are using your labor force badly, not listening to them, and just plain bad management.
2)”The secret is robotics”..GM under good ole Roger Smith spent umpteen billions of dollars on robots, and their cars were still crap (and even better, when GM and Toyota did a joint factory in California in around 1980, they discovered that the most hi tech thing in the plant was a secretary’s typewriter)
3)”Cheap Labor”….nuff said about that
4)”We could build as good a car as them (meaning Toyota, Nissan, etc) if we built only a few models”. Problem? Toyota had more product lines then any of the big 3 at the time.
5)”We have team labor”…..on the surface, yes, but when looked at you find the same old hierarchical management and decisions made by beancounters.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned in this book, and some surprises (anyone wanna know why Benz bought Chrysler? Benz production capability is one of the lousiest in the world as written about in this book, and I hear it isn’t much better today).
One of the things that this book teaches is that a lot of the cost of vehicles is based in bad design, poor management and in an attitude that problems, no matter how small, can be overlooked. People are asking how developed countries can compete with third world labor, this tells how.
