(c) Disney

An opening credit montage reacquaints us with the fabled career of Herbie the super-star, from his highs - parties at Club 54! Meeting K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider! - to his lows - ending up in a junk yard. He is rescued from this ignoble fate by former NASCAR champ Ray Peyton Sr. (Michael Keaton, aging gracefully into character parts), who buys the fallen bug for his recent college grad daughter, a reluctant Maggie (played by Lohan), who isn’t too thrilled to be saddled with this rusty lemon.

After she takes Herbie for his own extreme make-over at the body shop of her old school pal Kevin (Justin Long), Herbie takes her for a spin, reinvigorated by his new lease on life. At a local auto show, they run afoul of current NASCAR hot shot Trip Murphy (Matt Dillon, digging into his villainous role with a smarmy swagger that practically steals the whole movie, much like his predecessor David Tomlinson), ending up in a street race pitting the little car against Trip’s suped-up roadster. Guess who wins?

Thanks to ESPN (ah, corporate synergy!), Maggie’s father learns about the incident; due to a nasty fender-bender during her “wild�? high school years, he’s forbidden her to race cars. But, since Maggie was wearing a helmet and jersey emblazoned with the name “Maxx�? on it, everyone assumes the driver was a man (after all, how could a girl drive that well?), a lie that Maggie takes advantage of to get out of hot water with her dad. (Changing the gender of Herbie’s owner adds a new dimension to the proceedings, although it is a conceit at least as old as National Velvet; all cries of “girl power�? are nicely kept in check.)

(c) Disney

Humiliated by his embarrassing defeat, trip hatches a plot to exact revenge on “Maxx�? and Herbie: an exhibition race with a large cash prize to whoever bests him in the final lap. But when Trip discovers that “Maxx�? is really Maggie, he turns on the oily charm, upping the ante to winner take all. Maggie, who by now has embraced the “specialness�? that is Herbie, nevertheless betrays him, losing him to Trip, who promptly sends the little car to his doom: a monster truck rally. Maggie must set aside her own ambitions to save Herbie, who, in turn (and in a new “tripped out�? form), pulls out all the stops to help her regain her family’s legacy (plus the love of Kevin and the respect of her father) in the climactic championship race. (Naturally, several real-life NASCAR drivers make appearances in the film; all I can say is: Jeff Gordon, don’t quit your day job.)

Director Angela Robinson (who had a decidedly different kind of “chick flick�? earlier this year with D.E.B.S) handles it all with affection, paying dutiful homage to the original’s style with playful swipes and split screens utilizing Herbie’s famous red, white and blue racing strips and even including George Bruns’ whimsical “Herbie Theme�? amongst a soundtrack rife with classic pop (even if “Born To Be Wild�? is used for the umpteenth time). (Alas, no Dean Jones or Michelle Lee cameos.) And although the storyline borrows heavily from previous Love Bug outings, there’s enough fresh spins on the material to place Fully Loaded as a fitting, entertaining addition to the ranks of Herbie lore.