Sixteen Candles (1984) review

(9/10)

The best '80s teen movie.

PLOT:Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) feels she should be at the prime of her life; she's turning sixteen on this day in time, but because of her big sister, Ginny's (Blanche Baker), wedding, her whole family forgets, including her grandparents! If that isn't enough to ruin her day, her senior crush, Jake Ryan (Michael Shoeffling), starts to drive her crazy more than ever, and this huge geek (Anthony Michael Hall) is at his wits end to win her over. It's a basic teen life plot executed with more compassion than some other flicks of its kind and hilariously in its comedy.



ACTING:The acting in here is pretty great for an '80s teen flick. This movie holds the spot as Molly Ringwald's most memorable role to date. She simply plays the role as the distressed teenager well. The other shiners were Michael Shoeffling as Jake, Anthony Michael Hall as the geek, Blanche Baker as Ginny, and Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong, with an honorable mention to Joan Cusack as the geek with the headgear. Baker was hilarious in the final moments of the movie. Hall was his usually funny geek character. I didn't think Haviland Morris as Caroline was all that good though.

SCORE:The score is made up of '80s theme score, TV show themes, and great '80s songs from the likes of David Bowie, Spandau Ballet, and even the Thompson Twins. I liked "If You Were Here" by Thompson Twins best, played at the end of the wedding scene.



OTHER CONTENT:This is one of those comedies you can truly name hilarious for all! The laughs in here are uniquely thought-out, true to an extent, and almost unbelievable. I've always been a fan of the John Hughes teen movies, from this to "Ferris Bueller" to "Breakfast Club", and this shows no difference from that. He always had a sense of what was funny in his time. The only thing I didn't care for about this movie was, though it had more compassion for its characters, we weren't introduced to them enough to feel for them truly. Just another highschool clique, you might say.

OVERALL,an awesome teen comedy with a compassionately and hilariously executed plot, great acting, truly '80s score, and unique, true, and unbelievable laughs, but we can't feel enough for the characters due to the fact that we don't know about them.