Plot Summary
Sixteen Candles is about a 16-year-old girl named Samantha (Molly Ringwald) whose family forgets about her birthday.  Her birthday is overshadowed by her older sister’s upcoming wedding.  She also has a crush on Jack (Michael Schoeffling) who she thinks doesn’t know she exists.  Jake has a girlfriend who is in the way of Samantha getting the man of her dreams.

I grew up watching 80s movies so I wanted to buy the dvd of Sixteen Candles.  I like the late John Hughes’ teen comedies from the 80s.  This is one of my favorite movies by John Hughes.

I liked the story to Sixteen Candles.  It was interesting to see how Samantha would overcome her family forgetting her birthday.  I know I didn’t like it when it happened to me one year, but that’s a different story.  She handled it with grace and dignity.  She was distracted by the fact that her crush didn’t know she existed or so she thought.  I liked how John Hughes managed to write a story that didn’t need a villain.  Knowing that Jake had a girlfriend, John could have easily butchered the character to make it easier for Samantha to get him.

John Hughes managed to make Sixteen Candles an ensemble movie.  Even though Samantha was the main character, he allowed other characters to have stories too.  Samantha’s sister Jenny (Blanche Baker) deals with getting married.  Long Duck Dong (Gedde Wattanabe), deals with being in a strange country and an American girlfriend.  Farmer Ted aka The Geek (Anthony Michael Hall) tries to keep up with his “stud” status.  Jack is torn between staying with his girlfriend Carolyn (Haviland Morris) or pursuing a relationship with Samantha.

The cast of Sixteen Candles had great chemistry.  I like when a movie’s cast has a lot of chemistry.  In this movie, they didn’t look as if they were thrown together.  Jake had good chemistry with Samantha and Carolyn.  Samantha also had good chemistry with Farmer Ted.  In my opinion, the movie could have worked if Samantha picked either one of them. Look out for appearances by John Cusack, Joan Cusack, and Jamie Gertz.

The acting in Sixteen Candles was pretty good.  Molly Ringwald really owned her role.  I could never see anyone else playing her role.  Anthony Michael Hall also owned his role.  I couldn’t see anyone else playing his role either.  Even though the other actors were good, I could see other people in their roles and the movie could have still worked.  I doubt it would have worked without Molly and Anthony.

Sixteen Candles is good, but it is offensive to minorities.  The obvious offense is towards Asian Americans.  Anyone familiar with the movie knows what happened to Long Duck Dong.  If your not, there’s a gong that goes off whenever Long Duck Dong’s name is mentioned in the movie.  He doesn’t speak good English.  People in the movie treat him as if he’s an alien.  The people behind the scenes discuss what happened to Long Duck Dong’s character in the bonus feature on the dvd.  They mentioned how it was politically incorrect, but they hid behind the fact that it was a comedy not to be taken seriously.  There was another offensive moment that wasn’t addressed.  When Samantha and her friend Randi are talking about a car that Samantha wanted, they had a miscommunication.  Samantha was talking about wanting a “black” car, but Randi thought she meant a “black” guy.  Randi looked horrified at the idea of Samantha being with a “black” guy.  When Samantha corrected her and said she wanted a “pink” guy, Randi looked relieved.  As an African American, I was offended at the idea that Randi was appalled by Samantha being with a “black” guy.

In my opinion, the scenes at Jenny’s wedding are over the top. It is Jenny’s time of the month so she takes muscle relaxers for her cramps.  She takes too many muscle relaxers which causes her to act drunk at her wedding.  Some people may find these scenes funny, but I thought it was too much.

Sixteen Candles suffers from predictability.  If you are familiar with the John Hughes movies that star Molly Ringwald, you know how this ends.  The cover of the movies makes it seem as if it’s a triangle between Samantha/Jake/Farmer Ted when it’s really between Jake/Carolyn/Samantha.  Either way, the movie is still predictable.  It’s not hard to know which couple will get together at the end of the movie.

Included on the dvd was a 10-part documentary featuring some case members and people behind the scenes.  They talked about the movie and its affect on pop culture.  John Hughes and Molly Ringwald were noticeably absent from the dvd.  I would have been interested in what they had to say about the movie.

In conclusion
Sixteen Candles is a good 80s teen comedy.  I think it’s one of Molly Ringwald’s and Anthony Michael Hall’s best movies.  It’s not as raunchy as teen comedies today, but it still holds up pretty well.

John Hughes 80's movie
The Breakfast Club

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD