True movie confessions

At the risk of being considered even more un-American than I already am (an odd thought, since my ancestors came here in 1637), I am now going to admit that I have never seen a single Star Wars movie. Not one. I've barely even seen pieces of them -- when they come on TV, I switch the channel. I just have no interest whatsoever. And the few snippets I've seen from time to time over the years have not made me want to watch them. They just don't seem to be . . . good. So, having admitted that, my defense at my deportation trial (and, really, where do you deport someone like me to? Sussex? Perhaps Saxony?) will be that I tried to see the first movie, once, on a date (at the hideous old Cine 1-Whatever at Northway Mall, nasty from the day it opened, and always growing another theater or two). This was fully a year after the movie had opened, but for some reason on this night there was a line and we couldn't get in, so we chose a different Mark Hamill vehicle, Corvette Summer. Twenty-seven years later, I can remember the title; the movie I'm pretty sure I'd forgotten a week later. One summary:

High School Senior Kenny Dantley's only love in life is cars. For a shop class project, he and his classmates build a Corvette ("Stingray"). The car is a big hit -- so big, in fact, that it gets stolen! Kenny, having fallen in love with the car, sets out on a summer-long adventure in Las Vegas to find it. Along the way, he meets up with a "hooker-in-training" named "Vanessa" (played by Annie Potts). The two encounter danger and romance as they try to steal back the Stingray.

Just imagine.

In further movie news, I've just learned that the "Fantastic Four" movie is going to start sucking very soon (you simply cannot put Victor von Doom in the rocket with Richards, Grimm, and the Storms. You cannot.), and there's an Antonio Banderas/Catherine Zeta-Jones version of "The Legend of Zorro" coming out. I'm not sure what to make of a Welsh Mexican, and I generally only like Antonio when he's being handled by Robert Rodriguez, but who knows? The trailer looks like things blow up pretty good.

Saw two great movies last weekend for the first time: "Garden State" (I know, I know, where've I been?) and "Garage Days." "Garden State" was so good, so personal, so well-conceived and perfectly delivered that one has to wonder what on earth Zach Braff could possibly do next. "Garage Days"is a surprisingly slick, fast, funny and visually fantastic Australian story of a band trying to make it big. One of the funniest, sweetest rock 'n' roll movies ever made.