Thoughts on 'Knocked Up,' 'The Departed'

I'm sick of the thumb-sucking critcal backlash to popular films like 'Knocked Up' and 'The Departed.'

After receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) those indie-art-house-apologists are out in full force -- especially on the message boards.

One of the main problems I'm hearing -- no way a beautiful blonde falls in love with "unlovable" schlub Seth Rogen. I wish everyone could have read the same article in RollingStone that I did. It's an interview with the film's director and writer Judd Apatow. In it, he responds to his critics: "Look at me and my wife!" Indeed, he is married to a beautiful blonde (Paul Rudd's wife in the film) and he and Seth Rogen both got beat by the same stick. So stick it.

As for The Departed, it pains me to see such a disregard for what most movies are lacking: Entertainment. Here's an idea: people want to see a cast of their favorite actors in a film. They are fun to watch and great at what they do. They want to be stimulated by a plot, they want action, suspense and romance. And if they're anything like me, they want to see a lot of crazy Irish gangsters drink Jack Daniels and beat the shit out of each other.

Better than 'Goodfellas'? Who cares. Sometimes it takes more guts to give a movie a great rating than a poor one. And 'The Departed' deserves all the praise it gets.