John Hughes wrote and directed this classic teen comedy from
1984. Molly Ringwald stars as a high school student named Sam who wakes up on
her 16th birthday, only to discover that her entire family had completely
forgotten about it. While it's true that they are all preoccupied with the
impending marriage of her older sister, it's still a major bummer for Sam. And
as if that wasn't bad enough, she's been trying to win the affections of Jake
(Michael Schoeffling), an older classmate at school, while fighting off the
frenzied advances of a super geek known only by his nickname of 'Farmer Ted'
(played to perfection by a young Anthony Michael Hall). Sam eventually becomes
friendly with Farmer Ted (or maybe "tolerates Farmer Ted" would be a better
term), and confesses her interest for Jake.
Sixteen Candles is a fun romp with wild, off the wall humor that is extremely
funny. When Sam's grandparents show up for the wedding, they bring Long Duk Dong
(Gedde Watanabe), an exchange student, in tow. They treat the adult Dong like a
little kid, but once he's left on his own, all the guy wants to do is party-hardy--which he does, at every opportunity he gets. When Jake's wealthy parents leave
town for the night, he invites some of his stuffy rich kid friends over for a
quiet evening of hanging out, only to have it turn into a wild revelry, with
much of the house destroyed, Jake being attacked by a drunken Dong, and Farmer
Ted trapped under the glass of the living room table. After rescuing the Geek
from his glass prison, Jake then confesses to Ted that he's tired of his snobby
friends, and is interested in a girl at school who turns out to be none other
than Sam.
There's no major crisis that needs to be resolved in Sixteen Candles, it is just
a fun movie that surges forward on its comedic situations, which are rife with
slapstick humor, most of which may not be very politically correct for some
people (for instance, a gong sounds whenever anybody says Dong's name). Still,
John Hughes ably directs a solid cast, which includes a few future stars, in a
highly enjoyable story. The widescreen DVD that I reviewed merely had the movie,
and no special features. Yet this version of Sixteen Candles is still worth
owning, at least until they come out with a special edition DVD.