Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194931 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-05-06
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Colour, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Molly Ringwald established herself as the teen queen of the 1980s in this fresh comedy, Sixteen Candles. The movie is a day in the life of Samantha, whose 16th birthday is turning out to be anything but sweet. All the traumas of teendom come down on one long day, which sees her surrounded by dithery relatives, mooning over a high-school hunk, and pursued by a sawed-off Lothario. Sixteen Candles marked the directing debut of John Hughes, and its goofy energy displayed a promising talent with a great ear for high school lingo... a promise neglected since Hughes became, after Home Alone, a one-man entertainment industry. There are some pretty crass moments (why the stereotype of the foreign-exchange student from Asia?) but Ringwald's steady appeal smoothes over the rough spots. As the pubescent, self-styled lady-killer, Anthony Michael Hall turns in a hilarious portrait of a young swinger; he and Ringwald would reteam with Hughes for The Breakfast Club, another key teen picture of the decade. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Funny, Sad, Happy - Everything a teenagers life is every day
Loved it. This film is about Samantha who's sixteenth birthday is forgotten by her family due to all the fuss over her sisters wedding. As the film progresses it shows her day. From her at school in class passing a note to her best friend about who she fancies; only for the note to be seen by that guy. To when she gets home to find her embarrassing grandparents have arrived. And then onto the school dance where she makes friends with the school geek. The only mistakes this film had was making her grandparents too embarrassing,(no-ones gp's are that bad). And by making the Asian boy a goody-two shoes untill he is led astray by the American teens. This film has everything and if you're a fan of 80's romantic comedies and Molly Ringwald then this film is for you. This film has Molly Ringwald at her best and to see other great films with her in it. Watch Pretty In Pink and The Breakfast Club. This is a must see movie

A funny yet poignant look at teenaged life
For many of us who came of age in the glorious 1980s, especially geeky folks like myself, Molly Ringwald is an important part of our experience and memories. Pretty but not glamorous, Molly served as a beacon of sorts for me. Sixteen Candles is the first of a string of films in which Molly Ringwald dramatized the teen angst so many of us felt This is basically the story of Samantha (Molly), who must deal with the fact that her family forgets her 16th birthday while she is also suffering from the bad effects of a crush on a boy who seemingly doesn't know she exists. I love to rewatch Molly's movies every so often in order to capture some of those feelings of lovelorn giddiness that seemed to disappear in my 20s. This movie is very funny and does succeed in conveying the feelings of a confused teenager, yet it seems overblown in some places. For example, the whole Asian foreign exchange student character is far from needed, the degree to which teenaged partygoers wreck the host's home is extreme, the dental headpiece worn by a young Joan Cusack serves no purpose, and the farcical wedding of Samanth'a sister is pretty silly. I should say that Anthony Michael Hall as "the geek" is superb and almost steals the whole show, but for me this movie is all about Molly.

Where this movie excels is in its portrayal of teenaged emotions and teenager-parent relations. The very notion that your parents might forget your sweet sixteenth birthday is downright traumatic. The scene between Samantha and her father late that night struck me as classic. Even though the father gets his daughter to open up to him, he does not understand what she is talking about when it should be obvious to anyone; his cliché responses to the real problem are typically useless parental words of support. Segments of the movie such as this are very real and connect on a personal level with the viewer. I would like to have seen more of this type of interaction, but the farcical elements of the movie dominate the screen and, in my opinion, make it less successful than it should have been. As for the music, the rescoring of the motion picture does have a negative impact on the viewing experience; there are still some cool 80s songs that bring back memories, but the new music pasted into the film is often too loud, inappropriate, and just plain wrong, especially for those of us who have watched this movie a number of times and plan to watch it again and again as we get older. All in all, though, this is a fun movie and a great way to rekindle your memories of young adulthood. I'm not sure that the present generation of young men and women will connect as strongly to this movie or to Molly Ringwald as I did, but I am sure they can at least get some great entertainment value out of it.

A Sweet Slice of American Life in the Reagan/Thatcher Years
I saw this movie in the theatre when it first came out and I catch it everytime it's on TV simply because it never fails to coax a laugh out of me without being a "gross-out fest" like a lot of teen comedies of today. John Hughes is a genius at capturing the enduring vignettes of youth. This movie is funny and poignant and shows the true "angst" of every teenager who is still attempting to find out exactly who they are in the crazy world around them. Molly Ringwald (who became America's reigning teen movie princess because of this movie) gives a wonderful
performance and Anthony Michael Hall as the "geek" is superb. You can catch John Cusack in a small cameo long before he was "Being John Malkovich." Great movie when you are feeling a bit blue---it will leave you smiling and thinking that even geeks and awkward girls can grab the brass ring.