We have included movies in this book the critics sorely underestimated—movies that were too smart for their own time or whose minor flaws distracted from genuine brilliance. Some, we’d go so far to argue, are masterpieces. This chapter is not about those movies. This chapter is about the films that “get the job done” and that we love because they do just that—comedies that make us spit-take, horror flicks that make us jump, action movies that slick our palms with sweat and quicken our heart rates. Admittedly, they’re also movies that often don’t do much else, and mostly they’re not trying to. (You know when you’re sitting in an Adam Sandler film—say, Billy Madison, featured in these very pages—and you’re laughing really hard but you feel kind of silly for doing so because, well, it’s pretty dumb? These are those movies.) Their appeal to basic human emotions is usually not quite enough to appeal to critics. At least, most critics. The following pages feature passionate defenses from seasoned critics who gamely make the case for dumb fun: Time Out’s Joshua Rothkopf stands up for Adam McKay’s delightfully juvenile Step Brothers; the Los Angeles Times’ Jen Yamato steps into the madhouse that is 1980s action flick Road House and never wants to leave; and April Wolfe, writer and host of the Switchblade Sisters podcast, demands cheesy horror flick Dr. Giggles be given its time in the sun. Meanwhile, we also go to bat for a bunch more movies that are as fun as they are Rotten and celebrate some of the masters of mindless thrills (The Rock! Jim Carrey! Chevy Chase! Van Damme!) who make them so damn rewatchable.