We used to watch "Sweet 15" every year in my high school Spanish class. We had great fun making fun of it, too. I have to admit this was kind of unfair, since it is well acted and directed overall, but it gets so cheesy sometimes that it feels like a bad soap opera.
The story involves a really, really annoying girl who is about to have her fifteenth birthday party, but her parents won't let her be escorted by Ramon, the guy of her dreams, so she hates the whole world. Unfortunately, her father is an illegal immigrant, and he has to cancel the birthday party and avoid being deported to Mexico. Now the girl has to learn lessons about maturity.
The parts involving the father are nicely done. But the parts with Ramon (who looks like a Hispanic version of MacGyver, I must add) are extremely painful to watch. He appears to be in his mid-thirties, and he is hitting on a girl who is not even fifteen yet. Creepy. Nevertheless, he does not seem to have any evil intentions, since all he does is take her for rides in his car so they can... talk, apparently. What kind of guy chauffeurs young girls around for no reason? Does he actually ENJOY listening to her whine about her party?
I guess I would recommend this as a good family movie, as long as parents tell their kids afterwards that dating some random guy twice your age who puts the moves on you at a carnival is NOT a good idea. But it is a good movie overall, and it does a nice job showing the kinds of problems that some Hispanic families have to go through.
6/10 stars.
