What WOULD it take for an entire family to forget one's birthday, and a SIXTEENTH birthday no less? Well, for the Baker family, it would take a more looming event that would take place the day after, such as an older sister's wedding.That's what is bugging poor Samantha (Molly Ringwald) as the rest of her family is caught up in hasty wedding preparations. It's the big "Sweet 16" milestone, and today should be special and magical, right? Nope. In fact, it only gets worse for her as all of her grandparents invade her house and take over her room, and an exchange student from the Far East adds to the ruckus.
In the middle of all this is a familiar tale of unrequited love: Samantha, a sophomore, is in love with a handsome senior named Jake, but he's going out with a blonde bombshell. At the same time, uber-geek "Farmer" Ted (Anthony Michael Hall) is in love with Samantha, and tries as hard as he can to "score" with her and prove his manhood to the rest of the dweebs. Add to this a school dance and a wild after-party, and you got some crazy goings-on in this film. It's PG-rated, although it hardly looks like it, what with the rampant cussing and a bare-breast shot. Of course, this film DID come out in 1984, right before the PG-13 was introduced.
At any rate, the film still holds up after all this time. Molly conveys the angst of your basic average mid-eighties teenager quite well. Anthony, poor guy, can't seem to match the success of his nerdy roles here and in "The Breakfast Club", but maybe he can take comfort in the fact that his performance as Farmer Ted was top-notch. Hey, John Travolta got a second wind thanks to "Pulp Fiction"... maybe Mr. Hall's is coming up soon.As the freaks on the school bus would say... "Score. A direct hit."
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