Gatinhas e Gatões

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.

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.

I am shocked to realise this hilarious film is now 30 years old! Films from 1964 seen in 1988 looked a zillion years apart.....how can a 1980s film like this one still be so new and play so fresh in 2014? ...Apart from it being funnier and truly inspired I really now appreciate more the legacy of John Hughes in his series of films that were released in that 5 year span 1984-89. Anthony Michael Hall is rightly celebrated and gorgeous Molly Ringwald deserves her fame in the teen hall of Stardom. Whatever happened to Michael Schoeffling (Jake)....anyone know? It seems incongruous that so many future stars got their start in this film yet he seemed to go nowhere. I am also very surprised it got a PG rating.......given the swearing and the nudity..but I guess in the spirit of it all it was a perfect pic for anyone 12 - 112. Very clever and very funny.

"Sixteen Candles" was a great movie from the land that was the 80's. All the girls from my work were talking about the 80's teen flicks and how much they loved them. I had never seen a Molly Ringwald film, after all I'm only 20. But the girls were still incredibly shocked when I told them, they told me that they will not respect my movie opinions until I saw all the teen flicks from the 80's. We're talking crazy here people: Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Say Anything, Weird Science, etc.

So far now I have seen the major Molly Ringwald films. Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles. Sixteen Candles is a very cute film that came before the cliché 90's teen flicks. It's original and very funny. I think the reason why it's so popular, is because everyone can relate in some way to the characters. Molly, a shy ignored outcast, The Geek, well, he's a geek, the jock, he's expected to date and act a certain way. It goes on and on. I really enjoyed Sixteen Candles, well, I guess it's on the way to Say Anything! Wish me luck, y'all! :D

7/10

These are the immortal words spoken by SIXTEEN CANDLES heroine Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) in the ultimate 80's teen comedy. This movie has become a classic to those born in the 70's, like myself, and I now consider it a "guilty pleasure". Its a movie we all grew up with. Didn't we all know a person like 'Farmer Ted', or a hot queenie like the blonde he hilariously gets. It was every young freshman's fantasy. This funny flick is also a relic of the 80's that is not all that dated.

The jokes still work (as long as you see it uncut) and it is neat seeing things of the not so distant past be on display. Floppy disks, headgears, leotards, etc... Time has not been so good to the featured stars. Ringwald and Anthony-Michael Hall, who was born to play this role, and this one only, have all but disappeared. The biggest stars now are blips on the screen here: Joan (in a headgear) and John (a geek) Cusack. The film is like a toy you can't put away.

Some situations are beat, but at least Paul Dooley adds an extra dimension to the father. Too many of John Hughes' teen-angst comedies of the era feature tissue-thin parental figures. This was the first and best of the so-called "brat pack" movies, and will always hold a place in 1980's filmmaking history. Girls learned never to lend their underwear to a geek and we all learned that high school is just a phase, easily forgotten as time goes on.