Year:
1984
Studio:
Unversal Pictures
Feature:
3/5
DVD:
0/5
Sixteen Candles is
an 80's teen movie. This one revolves around two
people, Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) and to a lesser extent Farmer
Ted (Anthony Michael Hall). On the day before her big sister's wedding
Sam is quite depressed because her entire family has forgotten that
it's her 16th birthday. Sweet 16, apparently a special birthday for
white American girls.
Sam has a crush on Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), a good-looking rich
kid who is dating Caroline Mulford (Haviland Morris), a blond prom
queen type of girl who is a bit too self-absorbed. Meanwhile Farmer,
The Geek, is trying to score with Sam and just ends up annoying her.
But half way through the movie the Geek realizes that Sam is troubled
and they talk it out. They bond, but as friends. He helps her by
talking to Jake, who has taken an interest in Sam. Meanwhile Sam helps
the Geek in other ways. The plot sort of meanders a bit as it covers
two days of Sam's life. Eventually Sam and Jake hook up with like 5
minutes left in the movie, with the Geek having hooked up with Caroline
a few minutes earlier.
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I thought Sixteen Candles was a bit
weak. It's a comedy and that's
pretty much it. This being the first of John Hughes' Ringwald Trilogy
(with The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink being the other two
movies), it suffers in comparison with the other two. Still, it's not a
bad movie and you get to see small roles by John Cusack and his sister
Joan.
There are no DVD extras and the commercial intro can't be skipped, only
fast forwarded through.
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