16 velas

I had to write about this film after seeing the last 10 minutes of it on TV last night. I didn't miss much after all cause I had seen the film countless times when I was younger. Man I remember how much I enjoyed it. This has to be the most 80's character driven film about high school I have ever seen. It is just plain out stupid funny and heartwarming.

While Breakfast Club tries to handle the seriousness of social peers, and Ferris Beuller just solidifies the ultimate 80's experience with some great performances and total hip coolness, Sixteen Candles is just a crazy fun romp through the perils of being a teenager.

Ringwald is at her prime as the overburdened teenager, and Michael Hall is at his greatest as the ultimate schemer-geek. The party aftermath always cracks me up everytime I see it, plus so many more things.

Also, there's a scene where the geek gets unloaded out of the trunk of a car, and i SWEAR it's not a human person but a dummy cause the guy does not move but stands like a broomstick.. It's just one of those bizarre movie qwerks I wish someone could explain to me. And who can forget those alligator shirts.... I laugh now at the way everyone and the bands look in these 80's movies.

Alas it seems, Hall and Ringwald got stuck in stereotyped roles that they never seemed to shed or outgrew them as they became adults, which is to bad cause Ringwald, and particularly Hall's comedic sense of timing in this film is just amazing.

Rating 8 out of 10.

My Aunt mentioned she loves "16 Candles", and it has been more than 12 years since I'd seen it, so we rewatched it. I've probably seen it half a dozen times earlier, but too young for it in the theater. For John Hughes earlier entry and his directorial debut - credit to him on picking and filming a very close to or actual 16 year-old Molly Ringwald for the title role. And while I really liked Michael Schoeffling for the tender main crush, he was obviously too old looking as a Senior (an easy 24 playing an 18 yro), a small quibble. His character suave, collected, and sensitive was a great counterbalance in tone to most of other characters. However the tone of the movie generally is a bit too goofy for its own good, and the humor with "Long Duk Dong" is tasteless, poor, and hasn't aged well. There are some well-written scenes to keep the movie together, particularly with Dooley and Ringwald, Hall and Ringwald, and the memorable finale scene that one doesn't forget with Schoeffling and Ringwald in the fantastic last 2 scenes. These are much needed scenes lifting the movie just out mediocrity, and the movie could've been much better focusing on the drama and cutting a good chunk of light humor. I give "16 candles" a high 6/10, round it up to a 7/10. Its in the top 5 or so of Hughes films - it has some flaws but also some touching moments.

The final shot of this film can in some ways mirror the difficulties of adolescence. We see Molly Ringwald finally getting to kiss the boy she's been after since the film's outset. However this kiss doesn't look like it would have been particularly easy for the actors to pull off. Both Ringwald and Shoeffling are sitting "Indian-style" on a tabletop facing one another. They both have to lean forward presumably using their wrists for leverage while their lips meet over the flaming candles on her birthday cake. A difficult kiss, indeed.

Sixteen Candles is one of the best films John Hughes gave us in the 1980s. The young cast full of so many extraordinary talents gives us one memorable scene after another. Anthony Michael Hall is particularly effective as the leader of the nerdiest students on campus. Listen to his voice crack as he reads many of his lines, and try not to laugh. Good luck! The plot, as many of us know, centers around a young girl (Ringwald) whose parents forget about her sixteenth birthday in the midst of the chaos surrounding her older sister's wedding. At the same time she tries to win the affection of the most popular guy in school who happens to be dating the most beautiful girl in school. Ah, the trials and tribulations of high school.

The film is well-paced, never drags, and has its characters pegged pretty well. The obnoxious grandparents are particularly well-drawn. Of course things are eventually resolved in a manner that could never possibly happen in real life, but that's why we go to the movies.

I miss those destructive house parties!!! 9 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

Films like Sixteen Candles personify what the eighties was all about. And if you were a child of the 80s, you will probably identify with this film a lot more than the now younger generation. The story is simple enough, but it works so well. Molly Ringwald is particularly likeable in this, and she is almost irreplaceable in her part. There are heaps of familiar faces, including small parts from many of the present day 'movie stars' ie John Cusack, Joan Cusack and Jami Gertz. It's kind of daggy though, and when you tell people you watched it their response is usually "Oh My God. That is so OLD." But that's what I like about it. If you want to watch a film that reflects the eighties, forget the nostalgia trips of The Wedding Singer and Romy and Michelle. Hire a true eighties product, such as Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St Elmo's Fire.... The list goes on and on.

This movie is one of the most quotable I've ever seen. Everyone who has ever seen it knows this is true. Along with "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Breakfast Club", this is the best of the John Hughes 1980's movies. The acting is perfection, down to the smallest parts, too. Standouts are Blanche Baker as the bride-to-be on too many painkillers, Justin Henry as the pain-in-the-neck little brother, Michael Schoeffling as hunk-deluxe Jake Ryan and last but never least, Anthony Michael Hall as Farmer Fred....I mean Ted.