Sixteen Candles
Tags: cult, humor, depressing, romantic

Plot synopsis:
High school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker (Molly Ringwald) struggles to get through the day on her 16th birthday, which her entire family has forgotten about because her older sister, Ginny (Blanche Baker), is getting married the next day. She is also plagued by infatuation with a popular and attractive senior, Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling). At school she fares no better when she finds out that a completed "sex quiz", which she tried to surreptitiously slip to her friend Randy (Liane Curtis), never reached her friend Randy and, unbeknownst to either of them, was picked up by Jake. Sam panics because the quiz contains sensitive information, such as she is a virgin and is saving herself for Jake.
She has a whole new set of problems when she arrives home to discover all four of her grandparents are staying at the Baker home during the wedding. One set of grandparents has brought along a bizarre foreign exchange student, Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe). The grandparents force Sam to take him along to her school's senior dance that night and, to Sam's amazement, it takes "The Donger" only five minutes to find an unlikely girlfriend—the tall, large-breasted jock, Marlene (Deborah Pollack), nicknamed "Lumberjack". They are found slow dancing in the gym.
A subplot involves a geeky freshman (Anthony Michael Hall) who tries to win a bet with his friends by continually (and unsuccessfully) trying to bed his love interest, Sam. The character is referred to on several occasions in the film as either "Ted" or "Farmer Ted", but is credited simply as "the Geek". On the way home on the school bus, Sam blows him off by saying, "Go to hell."
In the school auto shop during the dance, Sam and Ted begin talking and Sam confesses her love for Jake. Upon hearing this, Ted tells her that Jake had been asking about her at the dance, and they agree that Sam should just go and talk to him. As she's leaving, Ted reveals the wager to Sam, who agrees to loan him her panties to help him win.
Later (after a $1 admission peepshow of Sam's panties, which Sam finds out about the next day), Ted and his equally unwelcome geeky friends, Cliff (Darren Harris) and Bryce (John Cusack), go to the senior dance after-party, hosted at Jake's house. When they knock on the door, Long Duk Dong, who has come to the party with Marlene, greets them. Ted and his gang get in but they make a big mistake by knocking over the jocks' beer can pyramid. Ted and Bryce leave it up to Cliff to deal with the jocks.
Meanwhile, upstairs in Jake's bedroom, Jake takes the opportunity to look through the yearbook and finds Sam's photo. He jots down her phone-number on a scrap of paper and calls her, only to be disappointed when her grandparents pick up the phone.
Jake's entire house is completely trashed. At night's end, Jake finds Ted trapped under a table and they begin to talk. Jake inquires further about Sam, and Ted explains the situation. Jake makes a deal with Ted: If Ted lets Jake keep Sam's panties, Jake will allow Ted to drive home his drunk popular girlfriend, Caroline Mulford (Haviland Morris), in Jake's father's Rolls Royce. Jake later uses the excuse of finding them together to break up with Caroline (who had surprisingly fallen for Ted and doesn't mind the break-up very much). Ted's friends filmed Ted and Caroline making out. Afterward, Jake drives to the church just in time to meet an incredulous Sam after her sister's wedding.
The film concludes with Sam and Jake sharing a kiss over a birthday cake with 16 candles.

Review: 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.
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..
Starring 2 of the Brat Packers, Molly Ringwald, playing the lovesick Samantha, and Anthony Michael Hall who plays "The Geek", he pratically stole the entire movie with his one-liners.
Funny, I saw this as a young kid and the only thing that made an impression on me was the beginning when Molly Ringwald's parents forget her birthday, and the final scene where she gets her happy ending.
It's true: a film about a high school girl who has a nightmarish sixteenth birthday played a significant role in shaping movie comedies as we know them today.To start with, "Sixteen Candles" was written and directed by John Hughes.
With Hughes help to create such a real concept (getting neglected by her family on her birthday), Ringwald communicates all those dizzying 16-year-old emotions and issues like self-confidence, being misunderstood and of course hopeless romance.The comedic genius plays its way in to all the things that happen to Sam and the completely relatable and/or goofy characters that surround her.
This is proof that movies about life in the suburbs can in fact be done well.Complimented with a killer soundtrack, freshmen who look like 12-year-olds paying money to see women's underwear, some great cars and plenty of empty cans of "Old Style," "Sixteen Candles" is classic in every sense of the word.
All you have to do is say a line like: "Oh look, Frank, she's got her boobies"; or "Thanks for lending me the Donger here, he's totally bitchin'"; or "What's happening', hot stuff?", to anyone between the ages of 30 and 40, and I guarantee they'll know what you're talking about.Molly Ringwald raised teen surliness to Shakespearean heights; Anthony Michael Hall channeled hormonal distress; and Joan Cusack brought acceptance to head-gear wearers everywhere, proving that kids with bad teeth are humans too.Grade: A+.
Maybe I approached it in the wrong angle, not at all used to the idealism of the 80's, but this movie represented all that was horribly cliché and unrealistic about high school and typical suburban life.All the jokes were stereotypical, whether it was making fun of the freshman geek or the Chinese exchange student.
This is the film which started the John Hughes/Molly Ringwald/Anthony Michael Hall trilogies:Molly's SIXTEEN CANDLES, BREAKFAST CLUB, and PRETTY IN PINK / Anthony's SIXTEEN CANDLES, BREAKFAST CLUB and WEIRD SCIENCE.
Anthony Michael Hall is perfect as the nerd who tries hard to impress, but to me this is Molly Ringwald's movie as she adeptly personifies the sulky sweet teen whose day goes from bad to worse.
Ultimately this film can't hold a candle to director John Hughes' next project, The Breakfast Club, which does a considerably better job capturing the exploits of mid-80's high schoolers without all the two-dimensional, misanthropic portraits of the older generations cluttering up the movie as they do here..
John Hughes was king of the 80's all his movies were classic, Sixteen Candles was really funny Molly Ringwald plays Samantha Baker she just turned 16 and her family totaly forgot then there is Jake Ryan the man of her dreams who has no idea who she is then there is Anthony Michael Hall playing Farmer Ted, and he likes Sam so he keeps bothering her they had some great moments in the movie, and of course we can't forget Long Duk Dong.
"Sixteen Candles" is one of those films, and I finally watched it over 25 years after its release, knowing it was from John Hughes, who made several of these 80's teen movies, including "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", both of which I had seen and thought were good.
When I finally watched this 1984 romantic comedy, I didn't think it was as good as the other two teen films from Hughes which I had seen, but it still has its charm.It's Samantha Baker's sixteenth birthday, but her family is so distracted by the wedding of her older sister, Ginny, which is coming up the next day, they forget all about Samantha's birthday!
Another memorably funny scene is Samantha's first conversation with "The Geek" (Anthony Michael Hall's character), especially when he asks her if he's turning her on, when he should know the answer!
There were parts of "Sixteen Candles" which I didn't really care for, as it isn't always entertaining watching Samantha having her constant bad luck and getting all sulky, and I wasn't sure how funny I thought the main character's grandmother "feeling her up" was.
This movie is the 2nd best teen comedy movie ever made and there is 2 reasons why this movie is great and the reasons are:1.This movie is so funny i was laughing all throw out this movie and the two most funniest characters in this movie are Long Duck Dong (Gedde Watanabe) and Farmer Ted/The Geek (Anthony Michael Hall) and with out those two characters this movie would of still been great but it would not have been as funny.2.The acting in this movie is really good especially by the beautiful actress Molly Ringwald and one of my favorite actors of all time John Cusack does a good job at acting in this movie.Over all this is a classic movie and u should watch it and u will fall in love with this movie.And my rating for this movie is 7 out of 10..
While it isn't exactly Woody Allen, John Hughes' "Sixteen Candles" has some wild laughs and it's blessedly issue-free, but most of the big gags misfire and I wasn't sure how much more I could take of Anthony Michael Hall's squeaky-voiced overacting.
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.
She's the best thing about this film, and she doesn't even say a word.This is no Ferris Bueller's Day Off Tisn't The Breakfast Club Tisn't St Elmo's Fire Tisn't even as good as the parody of John Hughes films that is Not Another Teen MovieIt's just crêpe.DO NOT WATCH THIS MONSTROSITY OF CELLULOID.
John Hughes, not renowned for his subtlety, I think we can all agree on that, handles this scene with such subtlety and compassion for his characters and a realness which lacks in most of his other 80s teen-angst movies (with the possible exception of Ferris Bueller's Day Off).
Gedde Watanabe as the Chinese exchange student (although his depiction boarders on the racist you can't help laughing about him, we're used to racial stereotyping Hughes' movies anyway), Justin Henry as the annoying little brother and John Kapelos as the shady fiancee of Sam's sister to name but a few, all hilarious roles.
In short, this is Hughes'best teen-angst movie because it lacks the pretention of the Breakfast Club, the bad acting of Pretty in Pink(yes, I know he didn't direct that one), the social commentary of Ferris Bueller(which just doesn't belong in these kinds of movies) and the uncharismatic actors of Some Kind of Wonderful.
John Hughes was the genius behind such great 80's comedies like 'Pretty in Pink', 'Ferris Bueller' and of course 'The Breakfast Club', and this was his first attempt at the genre.All the elements that would make his latter films so beloved are here, as of course is the ever delightful Molly Ringwald.
John Hughes made a name for himself specializing in teen comedies during the 1980's, since this was really the first one of many(though they weren't sequels)Story has a girl(Molly Ringwald) having her sixteenth birthday being forgotten by her busy family, and assorted craziness going on between an upcoming wedding, unrequited love from a senior, and unwanted attention from the freshman(Anthony Michael Hall).
She's also being constantly annoyed by the Geek (Anthony Michael Hall) and has to deal with with her conceited, obnoxious older sisters wedding and her truly rotten kid brother (Justin Henry).Ringwald is just perfect in her role, Schoeffling is tall and handsome (but no actor--he appears uncomfortable all the time) and Hall is uproarious but I didn't really like the movie.
Sixteen Candles is a classic 1980s teen flick starring some of the usual suspects, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.
The premise is a great idea; amidst the confusion of her older sister's wedding, Ringwald's family completely forgets her 16th birthday.Along the way, Ringwald is embarrassed at a school dance and continually harassed by the lovable dork played by Hall.Perhaps the primary bright star of this film, however, is the absolutely hilarious Chinese exchange student Long Duck Dong, played by Gedde Watanabe.
Long Duck Dong is the life of the party, making out with his "hot American girlfriend" while at the same time riding an exercise bike (unbelievable hilarious scene) and waking up drunk outside Ringwald's house on the day of the wedding.The movie is not Shakespeare.
Crushes Can Be Fun. Molly Ringwald's starring debut makes for one of the 1980s' most distinctive cinematic moments, as Samantha Baker, middle daughter in a family who struggles with a forgotten birthday and a boy she's crazy about who, she thinks, doesn't know she exists."You need four inches of bod and a great birthday," she tells herself, not knowing how great it could be.Before it can get great, however, Samantha will run a gauntlet that includes grandparents invading her bedroom (and feeling up her chest), an insulting brother, awkward stares at a teen dance, an embarrassing note winding up in the wrong hands, and a geek charging freshmen a dollar to see her underwear.Writer-director John Hughes launched his run of popular teen comedies with this high-energy charmer.
Frankly, I found his later "Brat Pack" movies to be occasional fun done in by a mopey sense of teen entitlement, but "Sixteen Candles" shows how affecting a filmmaker he could be by focusing on the laughs and letting the drama and story take care of themselves.Hughes knew youth culture, and here plays up its kooky side for all it was worth.
He's brought up a lot as a bad Hollywood stereotype, but he's really just another comic button Hughes keeps pushing in strategic moments, with Watanabe getting all and more out of lines like "Now I have a place to put my hand!" and "Au-to-mo-bile!"The whole film has a wonderful lived-in look, with backgrounds that are constantly alive and often funny in their own right.
John Hughes' first film is one of his best, and it holds up quite well almost a quarter-century later.Molly Ringwald plays Samantha, who is both naive and jaded as her 16th birthday comes and goes without any recognition from her family.
Rated PG for Language and Brief Nudity.Sixteen Candles is a fairly funny and good movie.I've seen the movie at least three times.Its a teenage romantic-comedy set in the 80's.I was born in 1992 but I still find this film funny.It stars Molly Ringwald of the 1980's "Brat Pack".She was a big star in the 1980's but after that she became a hasbeen.She was also in the movies "pretty in pink" which I have not seen and "The Breakfast Club" which is a great 80's teen film as well.Sixteen Candles is about a girl who'se sister is getting married.It is her 16th birthday yet her family forgets because of her big sister's wedding.She also is in love with this guy named Jake Ryan who is also wondering about her.He's older and has a senior girlfriend however.Hilarity ensues and Anthony Michael Hall plays a funny role as a nerd.Sixteen Candles is a funny teen comedy from the 80's!.
Sixteen Candles is a classic JH film with '80s stars Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall (they also collided in "The Breakfast Club" a year later).
If you liked the Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Weird Science, Sixteen Candles is the movie you'll want to see next!
"Sixteen Candles", aka another 80's Molly Ringwald film, was very funny and had a great plot.
I even liked it better than "Pretty in Pink." The characters were great; Sam, played by Molly, whose entire family forgot her b-day; her younger brother who is a trouble maker who has such funny lines; Sam's crush who already has a girlfriend; a desperate geek who wants to do it; and Sam's granparent's exchange student, a japenese kid who is a regular party animal!This movie is a romantic comedy, but mostly a comedy!
Watched Sixteen Candles Featured Molly Ringwald(Tempest) as Samantha Baker, Anthony Michael Hall(Running Out) as Ted, Michael Schoeffling(Racing With The Moon) as Jake Ryan, Gedde Watanbe(The Long Island Four) as Long Duk Dong , Haviland Morris(Reckless) as Caroline Mumford ,Carlin Glynn(Johnny Garage) as Brenda Baker, Blanche Baker(Cold Feet) as Ginny Baker and Edward Andrews(Threes Company) as Howard Baker, Billie Bird(Newhart) as Dorthy Baker, Carole Cook(Maude) as Helen and Max Showalter(The Love Boat ) as Fred,The Film was OK it was relevant for it's time but now its a just a typical Teen Melodrama nothing special its gotten dated severally , Amazing Cinematography by Bobby Bryne (Smokey And The Bandit),Amazing Direction By John Hughes (National Lampoons Vacation) Costume Design By Marla Denise Scholm(Psycho III) and Score By Ira Newborn(Police Squad) Groundbreaking for Its Time 7/10.
Released in 1984, "Sixteen Candles" stars Molly Ringwald as teen who must enduring her family forgetting her 16th birthday due to the activity surrounding the wedding of her beautiful older sister (Blanche Baker).
Sixteen Candles is an hilarious and funny Teen Comedy and one of the best Teen films of all-time.
Filled with great direction,a wonderful cast,a well-written and funny screenplay,fantastic laughs and a memorable soundtrack,Sixteen Candles is Teen films and John Hughes at their best.Sixteen Candles tells the story of a teenage girl named Samantha Baker(Molly Ringwald)who is ready to celebrate her sixteenth birthday,but unfortunately for Samantha her family has forgotten her birthday which is the day before her older sister's wedding day.
Now with the addition of dealing with a forgotten birthday,Samantha has to deal with liking her High School crush Jake Ryan(Michael Schoeffling)and the pestering of a smooth talking nerd Farmer Ted/The Geek which have hilarious results.Released in 1984,Sixteen Candles was the excellent hilarious and funny Teen classic that started it all,the first of six great Teen films from Teen movie master director John Hughes.
A fantastic soundtrack.In final word,if you love John Hughes,Comedies,Teen Films or Coming Of Age Films,I highly suggest you see Sixteen Candles,a funny and hilarious Teen classic that you can watch again and again.
Anyway, here are 16 great things about "Sixteen Candles," the teen-comedy hit of 1984:1) "Sixteen Candles" was the directorial debut of the late filmmaker John Hughes, and it's an exciting, funny, sweet, highly quotable, and ultimately touching portrait of a teenage girl's "sweet sixteenth" that is really anything but sweet.2) That girl is Samantha Baker (a then-16-year-old Molly Ringwald), and on the day of her 16th birthday, she encounters just about every single embarrassment imaginable.3) Nobody in her big, big fat suburban Chicago family seems to remember her birthday, because they're all more concerned with her older sister's wedding, which is the day after.
As well, Cusack's sister Joan also appears in a small role as a fellow geek.14) We were all saddened by Hughes's passing last year, which incredibly enough was this film's 25th anniversary, and this year marks the 25th anniversary of "The Breakfast Club."15) "Sixteen Candles" is a great and funny debut from John Hughes.
Molly Ringwald established herself as a teen star of the 80s with this role as Samantha Baker, who dreams of having the best sweet sixteen birthday.
And there are some wild characters here, not including a foreign student named Long Duck Dong, the beautiful senior Caroline, and of course, the Geek Ted. The acting is very good with Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall perfectly capturing the feeling of angst and hopelessness we all get when we are pressured into being a certain way.
I watched it again last night (had seen it a million times) and it's funny, but honestly I don't think a movie like that could come out today and be successful or well thought of.First off; I kind of thought Molly's character was kind of a loser.
(Rather than just a man such as in, say, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off.") This is essentially the film that made John Hughes famous, and one of the most defining films of the 1980s (along with "The Brekafast Club" a year later, this gave birth to the modern teen genre and the stereotypes inherent and loathed in most of the genre today).Molly Ringwald plays Samantha, a blossoming girl whose family forget her big day - the Sweet Sixteenth when she finally becomes a woman (at least in her own eyes).Samantha has a crush on the school's most popular kid and a geek (Anthony Michael Hall) has a crush on her, and she doesn't return to the feelings.The movie is predictable, but that might have something to do with our familiarity with modern clichés of the genre based on this film itself.
Ducky is a far funnier character then Anthony Michael Halls' geek - although I think he's perfect in 'Breakfast.' It's still entertaining and is definitely up there in the creation of what makes a teen genre film - so many clichés, so little time!