cult film freak: MARK HAMILL VS KIM MILFORD THROUGHOUT 'CORVETTE SUMMER'

Title: CORVETTE SUMMER aka AMOR SOBRE RUEDAS translated LOVE ON WHEELS Year: 1978 Rating: ****

Too mainstream for drive-in/exploitation and too risque for younger audiences seeking more Mark Hamill after the previous years' blockbuster STAR WARS, Matthew Robbins' CORVETTE SUMMER is a lot of movies rolled into one extremely entertaining time-filler...

Beginning with Hamill as lonely high-school student Kenny Dantley, who... on an auto shop junkyard field-trip (with teacher Eugene Roche) not long before graduation... initially discovers one piece of a corvette: and eventually builds the titular dream-car from scratch in a nifty montage revealing the most important aspect of his entire life...

Mark Hamill and Annie Potts in CORVETTE SUMMER

After which there's only one quick cruising scene, rolling down a headlight-drenched boulevard, ironically liken to George Lucas's AMERICAN GRAFFITI until the inevitable journey once the car's stolen... becoming a road movie but with a destination... from Southern California to Las Vegas... where this CORVETTE spends most of the SUMMER...

Annie Potts, a hybrid of quirky love-interest and offbeat sidekick, is what brings the watered-down risque-exploitation aspect as a wannabe hooker in a van, who Hamill's initially burdened with until the virgin-breaking moment that occurs around the time he's gaining on his prized-possession...

Mark Hamill and Kim Milford in CORVETTE SUMMER

Where the same years' LASERBLAST protagonist Kim Milford (who had blown up a STAR WARS sign with the weapon) runs a gritty chop-shop, making for a terrific heavy... looking every bit the laidback west-coast surfer type like Hamill but with an experienced edge (in real life he gained some mileage as Jeff Beck's lead singer)...

The anticipated car chase finale takes place on the road leading back to Los Angeles, an action-packed reverse of Hamill's desert-scorching hitchhiking journey on the way to Sin City that, for a change, exists mostly in daylight and where the second-act search is the most involving...

Mark Hamill and Annie Potts in CORVETTE SUMMER

Landing desperate gas station and car wash gigs to find the hod-rod... called The Hot One on posters... SUMMER shares elements of investigatory location-hopping gumshoe flicks: before he eventually finds the car, only to quickly sell-out for big money and idyllic romance (except that his perfect girl shares those rudimentary ideals)...

As this CORVETTE makes for an extremely busy, sometimes convoluted 2-hour cult classic... yet with a following of mostly car instead of b-movie buffs since the vehicle means everything... despite only flanking the beginning and end of what's ultimately more character than vehicle driven.