Sixteen Candles is a watchable, paint-by-numbers teen romance. It's mostly interesting for early glimpses of actors who would go on to do later, better work (especially John and Joan Cusack). The story is too over-the-top to resonate on an emotional level, but it isn't clever enough to get more than the occasional chuckle. It doesn't even do a particularly good job of capturing the mood of the era, though it's inevitable, of course, that some of that comes through. <br /><br />Ultimately this film can't hold a candle to director John Hughes' next project, The Breakfast Club, which does a considerably better job capturing the exploits of mid-80's high schoolers without all the two-dimensional, misanthropic portraits of the older generations cluttering up the movie as they do here.