Corvette Summer plays like a made-for-TV movie. In this case, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The plot is simple. Boy meets car. (See also: Christine) Boy loses car. Boy battles against all odds to recover car. Along the way boy falls in love and learns a life lesson or two. It all ends up with a happy ending. More or less.

What more can you want from a late-seventies flick?

Did I mention the boy in question is Mark Hamill? Luke Skywalker himself.

Sandwiched between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, Corvette Summer was Hamill’s ill-fated attempt to be an actor instead of just Luke Skywalker. The world wasn’t having it, but I was.

I saw the original Star Wars when I was six years old. That was it for me. I had found my purpose. One of my earliest memories was attempting to write a sequel to Star Wars on an old electric typewriter we had lying around the house. Little did I realize there would be more sequels and prequels and offshoots than I could shake a stick at some years down the road.

Patience, Luke.

I worshipped Mark Hamill as a kid. I had seen him in Star Wars, The Muppet Show, Corvette Summer, and The Star Wars Holiday Special. This was pre-internet. That was enough.

To be fair, Corvette Summer is not a great movie. But it’s a great movie. Luke Skywalker, a weird looking car, Annie Potts in her film debut, Brion freaking James one year away from KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park and four years to go until his stellar performance of Leon Kowalski in Blade Runner, Corvette Summer is chock full of seventies goodness. It’s even got Danny Bonaduce for crying out loud. Pre-steroid Danny mind you. That’s rare. Damn rare.

Did I mention Dick Miller has a cameo as well? (See also: Every cool movie ever made.)

Dick Miller!

It brings up the inevitable questions. Life questions. Serious questions. As an example, where is this car now? (According to Wikipedia, somewhere in New Zealand.) Seriously though, search the car on the internets, it’s a fun rabbit hole Has anyone ever noticed that any movie opening on a scrapyard scene, and to a lesser extent featuring an scrapyard in general is bound to be good?

This isn’t a movie for everybody. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll probably dig it, just for the trivia factor. If you’re a sane person, you’ll probably think it stinks. It’s a good movie for me though.