Corvette Summer

Its the story of a virgin teaming up with a very loose woman on the hunt of an ugly car. It stars Mark Hamill and Annie Potts and its called Corvette Summer. Its possibly the greatest love story told in a bad movie and is one step away from actually being a good movie. But an ugly car, poor production values, and plot holes keep it from getting there.

So Mark Hamill plays a recent high school grad, named Kenny who is a mechanical wizard, but a socially awkward virgin. Kenny has rebuilt a Corvette Stingray as part of his high school shop class. The car gets stolen on its first day out and Kenny is heart-broken. He gets a tip that the car is in Vegas so Kenny goes in search of it. Along the way, he meets a "hooker in training" named Vanessa (Annie Potts) who helps him out by letting him live in her van and search for the car.

The primary problem with the film is that it really doesn't know what it is. It has the adult thematic elements of a Woody Allen movie or Midnight Cowboy, but the production values and hi-jinks of a teen movie. The music is terrible and comes in at very inappropriate times. There's sophomoric jokes and goofy action in scenarios that are very serious (like getting killed by car thieves). It also suffers from some slap your forehead moments of stupidity from the characters.

The Corvette....whoa boy. It's really really butt. It also looks terribly built. There's shots that show the many many flaws with the molding. Curiously it's also right-hand drive. Why? And what's the deal with the hood scoop thingy? This things ugliness is one of the serious plot flaws in the movie. How did teenagers build this? Where did the high school shop class get the money to make this? When its stolen, how could the cops NOT find it? It kind of stands out...

Despite all this, there is a serious charm to this film. The relationship between Kenny and Vanessa is fun and interesting. You really are rooting for them by the end of the film. They are both outcasts of the "norm" and have their flaws that don't work for others but work for everyone else. Its a very similar scenario to Silver Linings Playbook. Annie Potts steals this movie. She's plays the role quite well and is maybe the best acting performance in any stinker we've ever seen. Shes irresistible. Hamill is good but really is just playing Luke Skywalker again.

On the whole, this film is so close to being a sleeper for good movies. If we'd seen a little more adult content (such as when Vanessa gets beat up by a "john") and less kiddie elements (such as the car being so over the top and the score), it may still be talked about by good movie people today. Instead its an almost good film that is stuck in bad movie land, to which we say "Thank you".

Individual Ratings:

Over the top action:
Cheesy effects:
Horrendous acting:
Laugh-out-loud-ability:
Ridiculous stunts:
Gratuitous nudity:
Memorable one-liners:

Overall Ratings:

Good Movie Quality:
Bad Movie Quality: