(1978)
2
Donald Guarisco
This film has all the elements of an appealing teen comedy but allows them all to slip away through a series of odd creative choices. The idea of a young man going on a hero's quest to regain his dream car is an inspired idea but it never takes flight because screenwriters Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins devote more screen time to incidental characters and episodic adventures than they do to the actual search for the Corvette. Corvette Summer also suffers from an uninvolving pair of lead characters: Kenneth shows little resourcefulness or charm, Vanessa's kookiness is far too contrived to be believable, and their constant bickering makes the viewer wonder why these two bother to become romantically involved. To make matters worse, the performances of the leads aren't able to overcome the flaws of their characters: Hamill lacks the charisma and confidence to carry the film and Potts gives in to the shrill, screwball comedy excesses of her character all too often. Corvette Summer does benefit from Matthew Robbins' visually slick direction, which makes inspired use of the film's picturesque Las Vegas setting, but it fails to add any momentum to the under-motivated story. The end result of all these problems is a film that never manages to live up to its premise. Barwood and Robbins would soon move on to better films like Dragonslayer and *Batteries Not Included but their work here is unlikely to please most viewers.
Corvette Summer on AllMovie
Corvette Summer (1978)
