Sixteen Candles - John Hughes' skilful directorial debut tackles teenage troubles with humor & heart

With her 16th birthday, Samantha Baker hopes to start into a great new year of life, but first there is big frustration. Her family forgets her birthday as they are in the middle of wedding preparations by her older sister Ginny, who is marrying a complete idiot. Her secret crush Jake doesn't know she loves him, but instead she gets hit on by the nerd Ted. It gets worse when the relatives including exchange student Long Duk Dong roll in and block Samantha's room. The twist comes at a chaotic house party. Jake learns that Samantha is in love with him and doubts his relationship with stuck-up Caroline. Is everything going to be okay for Samantha after all?

John Hughes' first directorial work skilfully enriches a teen drama about the pitfalls of love and growing up with a good dose of humor. Despite some flaws like the stereotypical portrayal of Asians or the dubious scene in which the unconscious drunk Caroline is praised as a sex object by her boyfriend Jake, the movie has just the right mixture of brain, heart and humor to entertain the audience. This is thanks to the gifted young actors, especially Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.

British Blu-ray contains theatrical & extended version of Sixteen Candles

A Blu-ray was released in England by Arrow, which contains two versions of the film. In addition to the theatrical version, there is also an extended version, which was enhanced by one scene. After Samantha and Randy have walked down the aisle, you can see Jake in the canteen reading the letter with Samantha's "sex test". Meanwhile, Samantha is standing at the food counter with her friend Randy and flees when she sees Jake. According to the IMDb, the scene is from the TV version of the movie.

Unlike the Blu-ray release of Weird Science, the TV version is not included in the bonus material. One may assume that here, too, various dialogues and spicy scenes had to be censored for US television. In return, the Blu-ray has extensive bonus material with various interviews and even offers the alternative soundtrack, which had to be modified due to licensing regulations for a home video release. The picture quality is much better than the old Blu-ray edition, so that you can grab the Arrow disc without hesitation.

The theatrical version was compared to the extended version. Both are included on the UK Blu-ray by Arrow Video.

Runtimes:

Theatrical version: 92:35 min.
Extended version: 94:01 min.

[00:10:11][00:10:11]

After Samantha and Randy have walked down the hall, a new scene follows.

Jake sits in the cafeteria and reads the note that Samantha dropped. So he learns that she would like to have it with him. He folds the slip of paper and puts it in his pocket.

Samantha is presented with a hamburger by the cafeteria staff. She walks along the counter with Randy until they arrive at the checkout. They talk about the fact that Samantha doesn't have any carrots with her today and that their influence on the growth of her breasts is overrated.

Samantha: "I can't believe I'm actually going to consume a school hamburger."
Randy : "You know, they're not that bad since they started using meat. What happened to your carrots."
Samantha: "Oh, Brenda was busy today. If she can't remember my birthday, you can't expect her to remember my carrots."
Randy: "Are they working?"
Samantha: "I'm not sure. Since I started eating them, there's been like, a 1/16 inch difference. If I breathe in real deep, I get half an inch. I think the power of the carrot is definitely overrated."

Samantha's paying for her lunch.

Samantha: "Thank you."

Samantha and Randy find a place. When Samantha notices that Jake is talking to a girl, she puts her tray on Randy's tray.

Randy says, "What are you doing?"
Samantha: "Jake's here. I don't want him to know I eat."

Samantha leaves the cafeteria and leaves Randy behind.

Extended: 1:26 min.