sixteen candle be a watchable and paint by number teen romance . it mostly interest for early glimpse of actor who would go on to do later and good work ( especially john and joan cusack ) . the story be too over the top to resonate on an emotional level and but it isn not clever enough to get more than the occasional chuckle . it doesn not even do a particularly good job of capture the mood of the era and though it inevitable and of course and that some of that come through . ultimately this film can not hold a candle to director john hughes next project and the breakfast club and which do a considerably well job capture the exploit of mid 80 high schoolers without all the two dimensional and misanthropic portrait of the old generation clutter up the movie a they do here .