Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles (1984)
Starring: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and Justin Henry
Written and Directed by: John Hughes
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Grade: A+

This is one of the many classic 80's movies that I love. And, I swear, the best ones have Molly Ringwald. Probably because John Hughes put her in all of his movies and his movies are the best...anyway. This movie is about Samantha (Ringwald), who just turned 16. And although she's not popular and the boy she loves doesn't love her back, she has a feeling that this birthday is going to change everything. It starts out on a horrible note, however, when her entire family forgets her birthday. Her day gets worse at school when she fills out a test about who she has a crush on and the boy she answered accidentally gets it. When the question asked who she liked, she didn't even think about answering Jake Ryan (Henry), the most popular guy in school and totally out of Sam's league. But what she doesn't know is that he secretly likes her, too. He hasn't talked to her because he figured she doesn't like him. But after he sees the test, he thinks it might be possible. On the bus ride home, her birthday, yet again, gets even worse when Sam is ambushed by Farmer Ted (Hall), also known as "The Geek", who is in love with her. After she blows him off, she heads home, after which many things happen, including having to hang out with a weird foreign exchange student, going to the school dance, and, just maybe, getting the guy. Also look out for both Cusack siblings (John as a friend of Farmer Ted's and Joan as a geeky girl), both of whom are extremely young in this film.

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club (1985)
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, and Judd Nelson
Written and Directed by: John Hughes
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Grade: A++

This is not only one of my favorite 80's movies but one of my favorite movies period. The interaction between the cast (which also includes Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall) is brilliant and John Hughes's direction is spot on, as always. The movie is the story about five kids from completely different cliques all thrust together for one day of Saturday detention. There's Andrew (Estevez), the jock, Claire (Ringwald), the princess, Bender (Nelson), the criminal, Allison (Sheedy), the basket case, and Brian (Hall), the brain. As they spend the day getting to know each other (reluctantly in some cases), they realize that what they thought about each other was completely wrong. There is not a lot of "action" in this movie. The real prize (and why it is highly regarded as the epitome of films about teenagers) is the clever dialogue and the way the actors deliver it and portray how truly hard it is to be a teenager in high school.