Warner Archive: "Corvette Summer" on Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[TonyD]

It features Mark (Star Wars(TM) Hamill and a very young Annie Potts (currently playing Sheldon Cooper's Me-Maw -Grandmother- on "Young Sheldon")

It's not LOA but doesn't intend to be... and when WBShop has their 4-$44.00 and this is part of it... this shall be

What is LOA?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

What is LOA?

"Lawrence of Arabia"!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Blu-ray release date is June 18th.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

The price link below will take you directly to the product on Amazon. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

 

[JoeStemme]

Glad it's finally out and was able to give it a look.

About the only thing about this minor film that anybody seems to remember is that it was Mark Hamill's first starring role after the monumental success of the original STAR WARS. It was not an auspicious beginning towards Hamill having a major career outside of Lucas' universe. To be fair, Hamill does show a bit of his shaggy haired charms as another impetuous, if callow, hero. Hamill plays Kenneth, an L.A. high school student (he was 27 at the time) who creates a souped up Corvette in shop class. Before he can really enjoy it, it's stolen and he traces it to Las Vegas. Along the way he hooks up with Vanessa (Annie Potts) - a wannabe prostitute.

At its most basic CORVETTE SUMMER is a typical cars and girls Drive-In flick, and on that minor level its enjoyable enough. What's unusual is that MGM gave Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins (SUGARLAND EXPRESS, *batteries not included) $9M to write this throwaway little flick (Robbins also Directs). That budget translates to something like $36M in today's money! Roger Corman and Crown International were churning out similar features for far less than a tenth of that at the time. Barwood and Robbins occasionally attempt something a tad deeper, but, they pale in comparison to all the low level hi jinks in the screenplay. The one reason to stick out a watch of this film is Annie Potts. She completely steals the film from its supposed star with her energetic kooky charm. It was her big screen debut and she is incredibly winning (she even garnered a Golden Globe nomination). It truly set up her career, which still blossoms. For Hamill, it was a bad omen, and within a few short years, his leading man days were over outside the galaxy far far away. Along with Potts, the film does give long-time second banana Eugene Roche a nice supporting bit and consummate scene stealer Dick Miller does just that in his two scenes. Oh, and there's a Danny Bonaduce sighting!

CORVETTE SUMMER is harmless. Now long-separated from the hype of Hamill's next big thing, it has a certain 70s road trip vibe, but, really, Potts is only real reason to seek it out.