Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I borrowed Corvette Summer from B-Ware Video in Lakewood, OH. B-Ware is a rental place the specializes in B movies, Horror, cult directors, and what ever the owners like. Corvette Summer falls into that last category. Eddie was so happy to see somebody renting this movie that he fairly gushed. It was actually worth the price of rental to watch black dyed hair, tattooed Eddie gush. Good thing too, cause the movie wasn’t worth the price of the rental or the 2 hours I spent watching it.

In a nutshell, Corvette Summer is about a guy, a car, and a girl. The guy, played by Mark Hamill, really has nothing in his life other than this car that his shop class is building in school. The girl, played by Annie Potts, is an aspiring hooker with the greatest van I’ve ever seen. The car is, admittedly, a pretty darn nice car. The ball gets rolling when, on the night that the car is taken out for its inaugural cruise, it’s stolen. The boy, upon hearing the police say "such a shame, we’ll keep our eyes open" tracks it to Las Vegas where he gets mixed up with the girl as well as a bunch of thugs. (Stolen car, who would have thought there’d be thugs?) You can probably guess how it turns out.

The major problem with the movie is that it’s just so convenient, Annie Potts and her cool van show up ever time Mark Hamill is about to get his rear end mashed to applesauce as if by magic. Las Vegas is a pretty large city, and even if it wasn’t, my husband and I have missed each other by moments chasing around Akron. One coincidental meeting I can see, especially the first one. Those kinds of coincidences are part and parcel of our lives. Two coincidences is pushing it, but ok. This happens at least 3 if not 4 times. It is symptomatic of lazy writing. It’s like somebody said "Hey, we’ve got Mark Hamill and Star Wars is a hit, let’s slap something together teens will like." American Pie a la 1979 (sorry, that pun slipped out.)

There was one thing I really like about this movie. The body work theme. This is the set up. The boy’s dream is this car. He’s chasing the car. The girl falls in love with the boy chasing the car. The boy finds the thugs and they convince him to work with them. The boy is not longer chasing the car, he’s (literally) doing bodywork for the thugs that stole his dream car. The girl realizes that the boy is now ‘pimping’ himself to the guys who (literally) stole his dream so she returns to her dream which was to be a hooker (to each his/her own.) The boy finds out what she’s doing (he’s suddenly discovered that he loves her) and confronts her. She says, "What does it matter? It’s just bodywork." It’s a good play on theme and on words.

But it’s not worth watching the movie for. If you happen to be a huge Mark Hamill fan and you like the idea of that play and you have 2 hours you really want to waste; or if you’re like Eddie and you just want to relive that time of life when Star Wars was the end all, be all and you were 2 years from the next movie, then, by all means. Otherwise, skip it. I just told you the best part.


Recommended: No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age
Special Effects: Well at least you can't see the strings