Sixteen Candles (1984)

Samantha's life isn't so great at all.  How could it be for a fifteen-year-old girl who has a crush on the most popular boy in school?  To make things worse, the only boy that has a crush on her is a geek!  She's not getting any attention from her parents because her sister's about to get married, and then to top it all off, they forget about her sixteenth birthday!  But it doesn't stop there.  No.  Because her embarrassing grandparents are in the house as well as a goofy foreign exchange student unfortunately named Long Duc Dong.  Add all of these ingredients together and you have the hilarious story of "Sixteen Candles."

Continuing on with the John Hughes/Molly Ringwald/Anthony Michael Hall theme, "Sixteen Candles" was the directorial debut for John Hughes who also wrote the screenplay.  This was the first time he would cast both Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall and it's a good thing he did as they both went on to win the Best Young Artists awards for their acheivements in this film.  He would direct them both again in his next project, "The Breakfast Club."

Starring Molly Ringwald (Samantha), Anthony Michael Hall (The Geek), and Michael Schoeffling (Jake) along with John Cusack (Bryce) in his second film, "Sixteen Candles" grossed over $20.5 million in the U.S. after its premiere on May 4, 1984.

Before you let someone borrow your underwear for 10 minutes, read up on some more info on this 80s hit...

1.  Both Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall were 16 years old upon release of "Sixteen Candles."

2.  When Molly and Anthony first met, they did not get along at all. Director John Hughes took them shopping at a music store and they discovered they had similar musical tastes and eventually got along.

3.  Laura Dern auditioned for the role of Samantha Baker.   

4.  Molly Ringwald almost lost the part of Samantha to Ally Sheedy, her future "The Breakfast Club" co-star.

5.  In the VHS version, Anthony Michael Hall is credited as "The Geek". In the TV movie and film versions, he is credited as "Farmer Ted."

6.  Jim Carrey auditioned for the role of Ted "The Geek".

7.  Brother and sister John Cusack and Joan Cusack co-star in Sixteen Candles. John is Bryce, one of Anthony Michael Hall's geeky friends. Joan is the geeky girl seen on the bus, and having trouble sipping water from a drinking fountain.

8.  Other than Anthony Michael Hall, actor John Kapelos is the only actor to appear in all three of John Hughes' teen films that were under contract with Universal. In "Weird Science" he can been seen at the table in the bar. In "The Breakfast Club," he serves as the janitor. In "Sixteen Candles," he stars as Sam's future brother-in-law.

9.  Viggo Mortensen (he played the role of Aragorn in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy) auditioned for the role of Jake Ryan.

10.  Michael Schoeffling (Jake Ryan) was 24 during filming. 

11.  The character of Long Duk Dong was supposed to be a teenager but actor Gedde Watanabe, who portrayed him, was 28 years old at the time this was filmed.   

12.  According to Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong), there was a deleted scene where he sings at the dance.

13.  Filmed at Niles East High School, some of the students in the big party scene are wearing Niles East Trojans jackets and shirts. Niles East is in Skokie, Illinois and was closed for over ten years when the filming started. The school has since been remodeled as part of Oakton Community College.

14.  Samantha's dad's car has the license plate "V58", which stands for "Vacation '58", a story written by John Hughes for National Lampoon Magazine.

15.  The license plate on Jake's car reads "21850", which is director John Hughes's birthday (2/18/50).

16.  The cake at the end of the movie is actually made of cardboard.

17.  In the book, "You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, And Their Impact on a Generation" by Susannah Gora, Molly Ringwald says that because she and Anthony Michael Hall were too young to entertain themselves at bars or nightclubs, they often spent their Saturdays off from filming "Sixteen Candles" crashing the Bar and Bat Mitzvah receptions that were being held at the hotel in Skokie, Illinois, where the cast was being housed.

18.  The German title of the film, "Das darf man nur als Erwachsener," translates to "One may do that only as an adult."  M-kay...

19.  In late 2003, USA network announced that a made-for-TV sequel called "32 Candles" was being planned, showcasing the original characters 16 years after the original film. It was unknown at the time of the announcement whether any of the original cast would be involved with the project.

And now you know.

"What's happenin', hot stuff?" (Long Duk Dong)  If you haven't seen this movie, you must.  Especially if you're a fan of 80s films. 

No, no, no.  No excuses.  "What the hell are you bitchin' about? I gotta sleep under some Chinaman named after a duck's dork."  (Mike Baker) 

Here's some pictures from the movie...

Jake: Happy birthday, Samantha. Make a wish.
Samantha: It already came true.