Sweet Sixteen

Starring:Martin Compston, William Ruane, Annmarie Fulton, Michelle Abercromby, Michelle Coulter, Gary McCormack, Tommy McKee, Calum McAlees, Robert Rennie, Martin McCardie, Robert Harrison, George McNeilage, Rikki Traynor, Jon Morrison, Junior Walker (II), Gary Maitland, Scott Dymond, Mark Dallas, Stephen McGivern, Robert Muir (II)
Director: Ken Loach
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
Liam's mom is in prison and due to be released in time for his sixteenth birthday. Dreaming of the family life he never had, Liam is determined to make things different when his mother returns - which also entails staying beyond the reach of her lose ex-boyfriend and mean-spirited father. But creating a new life requires cash, and at 16 there are very few options for employment. It is not long before Liam and his friends' crazy schemes get him in over his head and into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself in too deep, he knows he should walk away but just can't let go.

System Requirements:

Running Time 106 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Average customer rating:

Super Sweet 16 - The Movie
Starring: Amanda Michalka , Alyson Michalka , Brendan Miller , Roddy Piper , and Regine Nehy
Director: Neema Barnette
Manufacturer: MTV
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Insomniatic
My Super Sweet 16 - Seasons 1 & 2
High School Musical, The Concert - Extreme Access Pass
Bridge to Terabithia (Widescreen Edition)
Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus

ASIN: B000P5FH76
Release Date: 2007-07-10

Average customer rating:

From an MTV hater!
The show is Super!

My Super Sweet 16 - Seasons 1 & 2
Director: Danielle Medina , Wei Ling Chang , and Azon Juan
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Television | Genres | DVD | Video

Super Sweet 16 - The Movie
The O.C. - The Complete Fourth Season
The Astronaut Farmer
Catch & Release
Shooter (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B000P5FH6M
Release Date: 2007-07-10

Product Description

My Super Sweet 16 takes you on a wild ride behind the scenes for all the drama, surprises and over-the-top fun as teens prepare for their most important coming-of-age celebrations. Meet the kids who are determined to go all out to mark this major turning point in their lives, the parents who lavish every wish, and find out first hand what it's really like to turn 16 these days. Whether a Sweet 16, Quinceaneara or Coming Out, each week My Super Sweet 16 will document one character's outrageous journey as they plot, plan and prep for the party to end all parties. These kids expect and will only accept the absolute best. Now, it's up to them to make sure jealous siblings, stressed out parents and school rivals don't get in the way. This series gives you an up close and very personal look at the extravagant and sometimes extreme measures teens take to ensure that this milestone in their lives is commemorated by the ultimate celebration. Will their real life Sweet 16 ever live up to their fantasies? Blow out 16 candles and step in to a world that isn't always as sweet as it seems.

Customer Reviews:

From an MTV hater!.......2007-05-22

OMG this was such a stupid show MTV just gets worse this is also worse than laguna beach. Seriously why on earth would any one want to see this garbage of spoiled little veruca salts having their parents kissing their a**es over all these highly extravagant things on their 16th birthday partys this is just one of those shows and laguna beach that makes most teen girls look like spoiled selfish little brats who don't care weather thier parents live or die as long as they can still be very spoiled and still have everything they want which is what MTV promotes. Complete teenage garbage it must be destroyed forever and I give this a o stars as an MTV hater.

The show is Super! .......2007-04-25

From the Channel that brought you Laguna Beach, The Hills, Run's House and many more great other shows. This show is so funny, well basicly its about rich girls and boys who have way over the top birthday parties. And the party never goes to plan. Welcome to the life of being a rich 16 year old. This show is telling us that money can buy friends and a good party.

Average customer rating:

A House Doesn't Make A Home
Reality check for society
Sweet But Very Bleak
Effective & Moving
Ken Loach Does it Again!

Sweet Sixteen
Starring: Martin Compston , William Ruane , Annmarie Fulton , Michelle Abercromby , and Michelle Coulter
Director: Ken Loach
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Crime & Criminals | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Carla's Song
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ASIN: B0000C2IQP
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Product Description

Liam's mom is in prison and due to be released in time for his sixteenth birthday. Dreaming of the family life he never had, Liam is determined to make things different when his mother returns - which also entails staying beyond the reach of her lose ex-boyfriend and mean-spirited father. But creating a new life requires cash, and at 16 there are very few options for employment. It is not long before Liam and his friends' crazy schemes get him in over his head and into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself in too deep, he knows he should walk away but just can't let go.

System Requirements:

Running Time 106 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

A House Doesn't Make A Home.......2007-04-01

In Ken Loach's stark but richly rewarding "Sweet Sixteen", we follow events leading up to the sixteenth birthday of the resilient but reckless Liam as he tries to prepare a life and a home in anticipation of his incarcerated but soon-to-be-released mother's return.

Liam is portrayed by the perfectly cast Martin Compston, whose emotive face can seem so youthfully vibrant yet at the same time so weathered and world-weary. And apt visage aside, this first-time actor here proves himself to be one of the great young performers emerging in the cinematic world of late - his pitch-perfect portrayal of Liam is right up there with recent starmaking roles turned in by the likes of Ryan Gosling and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt.

Liam is joined in this film by his best friend and literal partner-in-crime Pinball (who's certainly no wizard, although is perhaps so named because of the way he careeningly drives the "borrowed" vehicles in which he joyrides). Pinball is ably portrayed by William Ruane, another previously unknown local who is also quite a find. Together the two boys try to find ways to survive and thrive amidst an environment in which the odds are greatly stacked against them.

The film is actually shot in Greenock, just down the Clyde river from Glasgow, a town where almost all the jobs have moved elsewhere, leading to few "legitimate" ways to earn money. A place where once-lovely but now dilapidated tower blocks are inhabited in equal measure by junkies and families. As Loach himself states in the appropriately spare commentary track (where long silences abound), it's a location where the visually spectacular scenery "contrasts rather sadly with the quality of life of many of the people who live there."

In "Sweet Sixteen", we find the legendary director's usually strident political overtones to be toned down a tad, his muted message blending in nicely with the drab browns, greys and greens of the bleak and beautiful Glaswegian cityscape. The film shows us, subtly yet firmly, how the most promising and gifted attributes in souls young and old alike can sometimes be squelched and squandered by systemic and structural societal inequities. And though it can be depressing to take in at times, this film is ultimately breathtaking to behold, and the most remarkable thing about Compston's performance is that he portrays Liam so winningly that you actually root for him to be successful in even the most questionable of deeds. All of which makes for a highly recommended viewing experience.

Reality check for society.......2007-01-25

Think about this movie and how it applies to real life situations? An abusive family, mother in jail, the kids being in foster homes. All "Liam" wanted was a fresh start for his family once his mother got out of jail without her abusive boyfriend "stan". He had to do law breaking things to get the money to provide his mother with a place to live and as you can tell once she gets out she doesn't appreciate it. This movie is a wake up call to a lot of people out there that think these types of situations only happen in movies. At the end of the movie we see what lengths he goes to to try his best to get his mother back. I will just say the ending is very emotional and is very real for a lot of kids out there with a family like that.

Sweet But Very Bleak.......2006-09-11

Ken Loach's film ends on Liam's sixteenth birthday, and it is probably not much of a spoiler to say that aside from being around to make sixteen, Liam's life -- both ahead and behind -- is nowhere near "sweet." But he is, for almost every minute of the film as he tries to build a life for himself and his mother once she is released from prison. Problem is that every choice he makes toward reaching that simple but quixotic goal is bad, spiraling him deeper into crime and danger even as the trappings of the dream are attained. Young Faust in Scotland is what we have here and a Faust further shackled by an inability to recognize who's loyal to him.

Well-acted by a cast of mostly non-actors and thoroughly gritty, Sweet Sixteen captures a part of the world with little hope and few ways of escape. The moments of peace and happiness along the way, while real and not infrequent, are all trapped in that bleak reality. Sweet Sixteen gets that world unforgettably right. BTW, the DVD offers the option to watch with subtitles. Unless you are familiar with working class Scottish accents, you probably should do so.

Effective & Moving.......2006-05-14

This movie was spartan and bleak. It revolved around the life of a boy who loved his mother immensely and who would do anything just to bring the family back together once again. The mother was in jail for a crime that she didn't commit. The father was a small-time drug-dealer and she took the fall for him. The son hated the father for what he did to his mother. As he was brought up in a social estate housing, he was forced to grow up very quickly and street-smart too. He had a best friend that was also his partner in crime selling cheap cigarettes. Suddenly, he had a bright idea of getting his mother an after-prison gift and he concocted a business strategy of selling drugs, drugs he actually stole from his estranged father. As his ambition got wider, he started to tread on the toes of established drug-dealer. Subsequently, it spiralled out of control. In the end, we would come to understand the poignant meaning of sweet sixteen. The movie touched on the inability of running away from the vicious cycle, family violence and early parenting. There was a strong dynamics between the boy and his sister, Chantelle who willed herself to get an education for the sake of her young boy. A very strong movie that's handled brilliantly by Loach. No extras in the DVD but recommended viewing.

Ken Loach Does it Again!.......2005-07-07

This is a must see film. There is so much truth and honesty to the way Mr Loach presents his projects that you really FEEL so much while you are watching these people on the screen. The fact that he uses unknown and untested actors and provides the veiwer with such a rich and true experience is just mind boggeling. Martin Compston is amazing, I hope to see more of him in the future.

Average customer rating:

Secrets of Sweet Sixteen
Starring: Sascha Hehn , Christina Lindberg , Christina von Stratzow , Willy Harlander , and Günther Kieslich
Director: Ernst Hofbauer
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Average customer rating:

A House Doesn't Make A Home
Reality check for society
Sweet But Very Bleak
Effective & Moving
Ken Loach Does it Again!

Sweet Sixteen
Starring: Martin Compston , William Ruane , Annmarie Fulton , Michelle Abercromby , and Michelle Coulter
Director: Ken Loach
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Carla's Song
Hidden Agenda
The Navigators
A Fond Kiss
Bread and Roses

ASIN: B00005JM7J

Customer Reviews:

A House Doesn't Make A Home.......2007-04-01

Reality check for society.......2007-01-25

Sweet But Very Bleak.......2006-09-11

Effective & Moving.......2006-05-14

Ken Loach Does it Again!.......2005-07-07

Average customer rating:

Sweet Sixteen [Region 2]
Starring: Martin Compston , William Ruane , Annmarie Fulton , Michelle Abercromby , and Michelle Coulter
Director: Ken Loach
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00008IAS8

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