[net.movies] 16 candles

mazur@inmet.UUCP (04/30/84)

#N:inmet:6500037:000:1156
inmet!mazur    Apr 29 00:59:00 1984

< any Square Pegs fans out there? >

Sixteen Candles is the story about Samantha Baker; a girl who turns 16 the
day before her older sister marries ("other men have loved me, he's the first
one I've loved for 6 months in a row").  It's really a very funny movie about
all the seemingly tragic things that happen to a 16 year-old, especially one
whose family has forgotten about her birthday.  

Besides Samantha and her sister, the household consists of her wise-cracking
younger brother, Eight is Enough parents, two embarassing sets of grandparents
and a Chinese foreign exchange student named Long Duck Dong.  The Geek is a
freshman who develops a crush on Sam, while Jake is the Porsche-driving senior
that she falls madly in love with.

Worth noting is the use of popular songs, TV and movie themes used as 
background music.  When the Bakers meet the Rizchecks (their daughter's
prospective in-laws), the theme from the Godfather is played.  The Rizchecks
turn out to be sterotypical Mafia types (I guess you have to be there).

It's a short (90 min), unrealistic, but really funny movie about high school.

Beth Mazur
{ihnp4,ima,harpo}!inmet!mazur

moriarty@uw-june.UUCP (05/09/84)

This movie will appeal to those of you who enjoyed the weird humor of Animal
House, but it tries to keep one foot in reality (or at least in the Reality
of Risky Business); while I think you might enjoy it if you enjoy slapstick,
others MIGHT enjoy it from several good performances from the younger actors
in this film (specifically the two playing Samantha and Ted the Geek).  If
the actress who played Samantha was any less talented than she is in this
picture, it would have been a disaster... however, you get to like her so
much that it works pretty well as a human-type movie.  My only complaints
are the ending, which is just a bit too humanizing (of the blond bimbo
girlfriend of Jake's) and too wish-fufilling; however, the latter complaint
is perhaps futile as the whole movie is often an exercise in wish-fufillment.

See it for $2, but some might enjoy it enough for $4 (I think I might've).

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