Sixteen Candles: Review By moviegeek

The late John Hughes is the fine crafter of some of the best teen comedies of the 80s. This was his very first. It stars Molly Ringwald as a girl who turns 16, but no one remembers because of her sister's upcoming wedding. Infuriated, she heads off to school, where embarrassing moment after moment arise.

Sixteen Candles is a better movie for Molly Ringwald than Pretty in Pink. In both she played basically the same character, but in this one, we, and the characters in the story, recognize her as being pretty. Pretty in Pink created her to be an ugly duckling, which is inconceivably false. In this she has more say and more voice, alas often talking to herself.

The movie is hilarious in every degree. All of the jokes, aside from some of the nerd/geek moments, flow perfectly. I was laughing out loud several times throughout the course of the movie.

It isn't perfect though. Not everything comes together. From the start, everything is predestined, but when random characters are thrown in such as the foreign exchange student or the nerd's best friends, it seems as a mere excuse to fill screen time. What the movie lacked in focus though, it made up for in humor.

And funny it is. I guess that's why people will enjoy, even love, this movie. There is never a dull moment. It's a breezy hour and a half. There isn't an exertion to understand or enjoy the movie. Sixteen Candles succeeds on every level it is supposed to. And when Universal told Hughes to pick something lighter and zanier as a first project (he originally pitched what would later become "The Breakfast Club" first), this fulfilled that request. It is enjoyable and a crowd-pleaser.