Sixteen Candles touches on one of the most important times in a young woman's life. Her sixteenth birthday. This is always a joyous occasion. After all, most teenagers get their licenses on this day, which increases their freedom from mom and dad and that is something every teenager desires. In fact, this is something that will never change for generations to come. In short, Sixteen Candles is about Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald). She wakes up and is pleased her birthday has finally arrived. Soon rather than later, Baker realizes her own family does not even remember it is her birthday! This is in part because her sister is getting married the next day, but she is still upset. She also must endure many other embarrassing events along the way, including having her crush, Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), find a sex quiz she completed revealing that not only is she a virgin, but that she saving herself for him.
Furthermore, the film produces many memorable scenes. For instance, the scenes that feature Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe) will forever be this writer's favorites. Hearing the name in general does the trick for most people. One of my favorite parts is where he jumps out of the tree yelling bonzai! Most of my favorite parts within the film features him in some way. For some reason I can never stop laughing at this scene, but especially when he says the word automobile and starts laughing. One cannot forget when Anthony Michael Hall, credited as The Geek, holds up Andie's panties in the locker room after he charges money for other boys to feast their eyes upon her sacred underwear. And obviously the ending scene is quite iconic by this point. This is one of the two endings of teenage films that ring throughout my head when thinking back on watching such flicks.
Likewise, most the acting within the film is memorable. Andie is so conflicted and moody most of the movie. This is with good reason of course. No one wants their family and friends to forget their birthday, but this could be dubbed as a sin in a teenagers world with their sixteenth birthday. She of course goes about everything the best way she knows how, but still finds herself wishing for that one special moment to make up for everything and Ringwald portrays the role perfectly. Watanabe's performance goes down in history for me and there are times that I will watch the movie or wait for a scene of his to play on television before changing the channel. Last but not least, I have to mention Andie's Grandma Helen (Carole Cook) feels her up. Some of my other favorites within the film are that of Blanche Baker, who plays Ginny Baker, and Paul Dooley, who plays Sam's dad. They provide a humor to the film that audiences cannot deny.
With that being said, the film is far from perfect, nor my absolute favorite in regard of the Molly Ringwald/John Hughes connection. This is not to say Sixteen Candles is bad by many means. For instance, Schoeffling is by far my least favorite character. In this type of film audiences should be rooting for the dream guy and the girl to hook up. Warning, slight spoiler alert ahead. While this is something that makes people happy in most cases, this was not the shining moment of the film for me. His portrayal was stale and quite frankly after getting burned the way he does, why would he want to hook up with someone so quick anyway. Maybe this is the indication that Andie is his rebound girl, which is not a great realization for viewers.
In summary, Sixteen Candles is one of the more cliched teenage films. The film however does include touching moments, and even embarrassing ones, that break from the mold of other teenage genre films. These moments also make viewers debate what they would do if in Andie's shoes. How would one handle everything she has to deal with on what is supposed to be one of the so-called best days of their life? The film is a whirlwind of emotions for the young woman, but in the end she realizes that life is not so bad. In fact, everything truly happens for a reason and if one is lucky enough sometimes live throws one a bone instead of continuing to kick one when he or she is down.
If you are interested in renting Sixteen Candles, make sure to check out this title through Netflix, your local Austell Blockbuster, Videodrome, Movies Worth Seeing, or movie channels based upon your cable or satellite provider. To purchase any Blu-rays or DVDs mentioned in this review please check out your local Austell Best Buy, Walmart, Target, or Kmart.
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