Classic--Sixteen Candles

or: Growing up, John Hughes style.

One word to sum it up: Crude.

I believe that every teenage should watch at least one John Hughes film while they are growing up. Yeah, the material is a little dated because we no longer live in the craziness that was the 1980's, but the themes in his films are still relevant. Sixteen Candles is every inch the film that pretty much sums up a kid in the 80's growing up, but some of things in this film are timeless. It's just a shame that I couldn't really get into this movie because I found it rather ludicrous, to say the least.

Samantha's (Molly Ringwald) life is going downhill fast. The fifteen-year-old has a crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents, a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong, and we have the makings of a hilarious journey into young womanhood.

This film is purely John Hughes. I could see all the early developments of this masterful director coming through in this film: the strange humour, the ultra hip and often very loud soundtrack, and the famed look into the mind set of a teenager. However, I felt like this was a little too much, especially considering it was one of his earlier films. It's like David Fincher and Fight Club. While that movie was very good, Fincher often got too ahead of himself, and since then he has honed in his style and consistently makes very elaborate and smooth running movies. Hughes went a little too far with Sixteen Candles and it's humour, but his future films like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off have better controlled writing, direction and even soundtrack, and are far more enjoyable.

In saying that, Sixteen Candles isn't a bad movie. I couldn't help but feel that this was the real beginning of all the crude teenage comedies we see these days, like Superbad. Instead of making growing up as a teenager the bore and unhappy experience that it often is, Hughes uses his signature style to make fun of it. The best thing about it is that I could relate to the heroine, Samantha Baker, in more ways than one, which is so hard to find in a teenage comedy. Molly Ringwald is a good fit in the lead character: being pretty, but not to pretty; being talented, but not mind blowing. Sixteen Candles has redemption in the great ensemble cast which even includes a young John Cusack. They fill interesting characters that do look and sound like they have come straight out of the corridors of high school. To be perfectly honest, Sixteen Candles isn't particularly memorable, and probably one of John Hughes' lesser films. But it's not a bad way to spend some time watching.


THE VERDICT: John Hughes' talent is evident, but it's like he's trying to shove it in our face. Molly Ringwald and the beginnings of the 'brat pack' offer Sixteen Candles it's chance to be a great film, a place where it never quite gets.

6/10

Classic--The Breakfast Club

or: All the real teenagers.

One word to sum it up: True.

A little while back, I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the first time, which kinda changed my opinion on 80's comedies. A few people recommended that I watch The Breakfast Club, because apparently that was one of the best John Hughes films out there, so I bought it and gave it a go. So maybe 80's comedies weren't that bad after all...

Five students, Claire (Molly Ringwald), Andrew (Emilio Estevez), Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), Allison (Ally Sheedy), and John Bender (Judd Nelson), all different stereotypes, are placed in detention on a Saturday. They pour their hearts out to each other, and discover they have way more in common than they originally thought.

The film was different than what I expected. I kinda expected an account of day to day life at high school over several days. What did I get? An account of a detention set over one day. But do I care? No. The movie was really, really good. Watching five very different, very believable, very relateable, teenagers interact and talk to each other about what bothers them...well, that strikes a chord when you are a teenager. I know someone who is like each of those characters (okay, maybe I don't really know a compulsive liar like Allison, but I know someone not far from her), and that's why this film is so special. Because I know where they are coming from and I understand the way that they feel.

Give five talented young stars a John Hughes script and they have practically set up their whole career. If only we could still have a 'brat-pack' who made movies which were similar in tone to John Hughes movies. The closest we have got to good teen movies are ones like Mean Girls and I am presuming that Easy A is another good one. John Hughes works have such a spirit, and he really seems to understand the lives of teenagers instead of giving them a distant stereotype: they whine, they eat to excess, the bitch about each other constantly even though it doesn't make sense, and they all hate their parents. John Hughes tones down the whole 'teenagers are horrible' idea and makes us a little more believable.

I'm guessing that you watch The Breakfast Club while you're a teenager, and you will find yourself relating to it. If you watch it when you are older, then it will bring back memories and be quite a nostalgic little movie. Either way, it's a bloody good movie.


THE VERDICT: A charming and funny insight into the lives of teenagers, which comes as a breath of fresh air instead of a stuffy over stereotyped piece. John Hughes is at his best here, as are the members of the Brat Pack. A must-see classic film from the 1980's.

8/10 (rating is bound to go up on a second viewing)