Pride and Prejudice and Long Duk Dong

We have a love-hate relationship with film reviews. How many times have you read a glowing review by a trusted critic only to be disappointed in the theater? (Come on, was Napoleon Dynamite really all that?) Or conversely, you're dragged to a film that's been panned by most -- only to end up enjoying it? (We'll admit that we did like The Notebook. But don't tell anybody.)

LAist is really keen on the first lady of "chick lit" -- Jane Austen -- so we ventured to the Sherman Oaks Galleria for a late Sunday afternoon show of Pride and Prejudice. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of reading the Los Angeles Times review of the film beforehand. Now, don't get us wrong. We agreed with everything that Carina Chocano had to say in her piece. She loved the film, and we did, too. The acting was great, the photography was lush, blah blah blah. But there was one line in her review that stuck with us throughout the entire movie:

And unfortunately, since we're big fans of Sixteen Candles and the other Brat Pack-era films like The Outsiders, St. Elmo's Fire, The Breakfast Club, et al, it was hard to wipe away that image of Molly Ringwald's Samantha and her beau, Jake, sitting cross-legged oogling each other across a lit birthday cake. When we watched the denouement in Pride and Prejudice, all of a sudden we could hear Long Duk Dong across the English moors...

So beware of reading reviews before seeing a film you have your heart set on. In the words of that great philosopher, Mike Brady: "caveat emptor" -- let the buyer beware.