Moms' Night Out (2014)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

RELEASED 2011 and directed by The Erwin Brothers, "Moms' Night Out" is a dramedy about three mothers in Birmingham (Sarah Drew, Patricia Heaton & Andrea Logan White) who go out on the town while their husbands & a friend watch the kids (Sean Astin, Robert Amaya & Kevin Downes). Alex Kendrick plays the pastor and Sammi Hanratty the teen daughter. Trace Adkins appears as a tough biker while David Hunt is on hand as a helpful cabbie. Andrea Logan White plays a friend of the three moms while Harry Shum Jr. appears as her ex-beau. This is a family friendly dramedy with a little edge and slight faith-based elements (limited to one comical church scene and one exchange at the end). The "inept dad" theme is tiresome and unrealistic (it seemed to me like the children lacked discipline). But there are some gems to mine, like the female lead being overwhelmed by her own doing. In short, she set an absurd standard for herself and labored under her self-imposed expectations.The church bathroom scene is hilarious. Have you ever had a meltdown over something trivial due to pent-up frustration and were embarrassed to discover that someone saw/heard you? There's another laugh-out-loud sequence when someone is innocently doing something, which is inadvertently telegraphed to a bunch of others, but offering the wrong impression.BOTTOM LINE: This is a fun movie with several genuinely humorous moments and a lil' bit of mind/spirit food. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hours 38 minutes and was shot in Birmingham, Alabama, and Pelham, which is just South. WRITERS: Jon Erwin and Andrea Nasfell. GRADE: B

With the preaching kept to a minimum this Christian film is all right for the general movieggoing public. As the title says it concerns with some hardworking moms who would just like a night out to themselves if their alpha male husbands would mind the kids.But that proves easier said than done because the guys are used to doing their guy thing and minding the kids is a chore that they learn to appreciate. Appreciate that it's the women who do that 24/7 with little thanks.Sean Astin and Sarah Drew are a pair of attractive leads and Patricia Heaton gives a nice performance as the pastor's wife of the church the women all attend. She needs a night out too and the scene where she's accidentally tasered by a cop is hilarious.Nice comedy for general audiences as well.

First I will say I like a faith based film. I appreciate this film for it's clean story telling. You don't have to worry about cuss words, gratuitous violence or bizarre sex scenes. This movie being faith based means you will see traditional female and male roles. One poster mentioned how the characters play caricatures. I would say in some ways yes but I think in others they are examples of certain glimpses of people we all may know , where we see one moment of an off kilter day. *spoiler coming For example maybe you would never let your four year old out put mascara on you after having a fit but you might let her eat too many cookies because you've battled tantrums and can't handle it for the 53rd time with no sleep and a spouse that travels so much. I would say that the first 10 minutes were funny and engaging. The middle dragged on and it took too long to get moving. Some more editing would have been useful. As it progressed there were some funnier/low dramatic outlandish moments. In the middle of that you saw more snapshots of how people are struggling too and how maybe it's a matter of perspective. Overall I gave it a five because it wasn't cheesy like some faith based movies but it was middle of the row in story telling. The actors played their parts well.

This is probably the worst movie I have ever seen. Granted, I've missed the classic worsts by paying attention to reviews, so I confess I've never seen Gigli, Showgirls and Glitter. But this one caught me off- guard. I love Patricia Heaton, our hometown girl, love Sarah Drew from Gray's Anatomy, have always loved Sean Astin and have recently come to love Alex Kendrick but, even with all that going for it, I have wasted my day with this one. I never allowed my son to watch Barney, even though every other kid was watching and singing along. And that's for the same reason I'm begging you to avoid this one: nothing but time- wasting, brain cell killing fluff. The ending was tender, but we knew it was coming. Wish I hadn't had to pay with my life to get there. Not funny at all. Stupid is never funny to me. Stay away.