When you've become a big star from co-starring in the surprise hit that was Star Wars what can you possibly follow it up with? In the case of Mark Hamill it's the passable Corvette Summer. Aspiring to be a teen comedy but pretty much lacking in everything that makes them entertaining, this first directorial effort by Matthew Robbins (Dragonslayer, The Legend of Billie Jean) not only proves perhaps Hamill isn't the best actor in the world but also that, without any real sexuality or goofy jokes, there's really not much of a reason for this to exist other than to be a love letter to the Corvette Stingray.

Hamill plays Kenny, a grease monkey kid who we first see going crazy over a wrecked Stingray at the local junkyard when his high school automotive class is there looking for a car to work on. Soon enough the class has pulled together and, using his designs, worked hard to make a one-of-a-kind car. They're ecstatic, especially Kenny, but when they decide to go cruising down the strip it ends up being stolen when one of the kids makes the dunderhead move of leaving the keys in it.

Finding out it has been spotted in Las Vegas; Kenny sets out on a determined quest to get it back. Along the way he meets up with Vanessa (Annie Potts) who drives a pimped out van and is heading to Vegas in order to become a hooker(!). That's right, the flick's love interest is a hooker-in-training who is constantly talking about escort services and trying to charge Kenny twenty bucks for even kissing her. It's an odd plot point, to be sure, and made even more bizarre due to the fact it's played completely serious most of the time. From here there's generally a lot of dull gab between Kenny and Vanessa, various scenes of him literally chasing after the car on foot when he spots it driving by, lots of feathered hair, and barely there attempts at humour. Things take a turn in the last third when Kenny gets caught up with chop shop owner Wayne (Kim Milford) but it only gives the script the chance to make him realize he's sold out and learn the err of his ways before it all finishes with an unexciting chase scene.

Hamill, sporting wild long hair, doesn't make much of an impression here and would basically coast on his Star Wars fame. He's since appeared in a batch of entertaining b-flicks like Guyver and I do dig his voice work as The Joker in various Batman animated fare. Potts, making her film debut, would go on to a co-starring role in sitcom "Designing Women" along with memorable roles in Ghostbusters and Pretty in Pink and, despite her somewhat grating nasally voice here, she's likeable enough even if she has to try and romanticize prostitution . Milford (Laserblast) gets to act all menacing in his limited screen time as our main baddie. Also keep an eye open for Danny Bonaduce ("The Partridge Family"), Wendi Jo Sperber (Moving Violations, "Bosom Buddies"), and Brion James (Blade Runner, The Horror Show) in smaller roles. Even cult actor Dick Miller shows up in a (too) brief cameo.

Much like Hamill, Robbins was also coming off a big hit the year prior - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which he wrote with co-scripter here Hal Barwood. To say Corvette Summer is as far away from those two large scale sci-fi efforts as possible would be an understatement and its timing is probably why it's such a forgotten movie. Of course, it could also be because it just isn't a very entertaining time and doesn't deliver the kind of hijinks you're expecting - perhaps those needs would be better served by Crown International's 1977 flick The Van. (Chris Hartley, 7/30/14)

Directed By: Matthew Robbins.
Written By: Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins.

Starring: Mark Hamill, Annie Potts, Eugene Roche, Kim Milford.