Sixteen Candles (1984)

Director: John Hughes; Screenplay: John Hughes; Cinematography: Bobby Byrne 

Cast: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Justin Henry

    Sixteen Candles is not my favorite John Hughes movie but I can't see anything bad about it either. As always all the characters are dynamic and relatable. The story is kind of weak but is compensated by the comedy of all the situations. 

It all starts with Samantha's birthday or more like her family forgetting her birthday. The birthday really did nothing for the storyline, it was just some thing for Sam to be angry about, but who wouldn't be pissed if their w h o l e family forgot their birthday. From there everything leads to the school party, a geek who can't take a hint and a senior who in my opinion was an ass. Let me explain. He does come off at first as a nice guy just with the wrong girl but at one point he *spoilers coming* sends his drunk (I mean like really drunk) girlfriend off with some guy he just met... in his father's Rolls Royce. What? 

The characters... they make this movie. My favorite one  - Long Duk Dong. An asian exchange student who is literally nuts. This guy had that best one liners. Then there were the geeks with the whole headgear  and who sold tickets to other geeks to see girls underpants. The unintentionally hilarious character award goes to the bride-to-be sister who is so selfish that it hurts and manages to make a fiasco out of her wedding day. 

The grandparents were pure gold. Captured so realistically. Just have no other words.

I didn't love Sixteen Candles and still very much prefer The Breakfast Club from all the Hughes' 80s movies but it was a good watch and I kind of felt bad for the geek as geeks as movie characters are always underrated and could have provided so much more. I really wasn't fond of Sam either even though I really like Molly Ringwald. There just was no spark for her to be the main character. It just wasn't there. But in either way I'm sure I'll be watching Sixteen Candles again... someday... in the future.

written by Benni

links: IMDb