What are your thoughts on cutscenes?

My brother recently started playing MGS4 and when I came home he was not happy about the extended cutscenes. His reasoning was that he paid good money for gameplay and not cinematics.

Now with me being of a film background, I loved the long cutscenes in MGS4, but then again, I am not someone who would be classified as a hardcore gamer.

My interest really lies in that in between where the cutscenes are actually playable. What are everyones thoughts?