Roger Ebert gets it.

I like a movie reviewer who can admit that sometimes you don't need a thought provoking story. Sometimes you don't need character development. Sometimes you just need fun.

From his 1999 review of The Mummy, which he quoted in today's review of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor:

There is hardly a thing I can say in its favor, except that I was cheered by nearly every minute of it. I cannot argue for the script, the direction, the acting or even the mummy, but I can say that I was not bored and sometimes I was unreasonably pleased.