{"id":5116,"date":"2014-05-09T14:24:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T18:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=5116"},"modified":"2014-05-09T14:37:23","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T18:37:23","slug":"movie-review-faith-friendly-comedy-moms-night-out-presses-powerful-cultural-buttons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/05\/movie-review-faith-friendly-comedy-moms-night-out-presses-powerful-cultural-buttons.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: Faith-friendly comedy &#8220;Moms&#8217; Night Out&#8221; presses powerful cultural buttons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Moms&#039; Night Out: Extended Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kZTmFa-2l4k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><strong>Synopsis: <\/strong>Three moms head out for a night on the town while the guys take care of the kids. Hilarity ensues.<br \/>\n<strong>Cast:<\/strong> Sarah Drew, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton, Trace Adkins, David Hunt, Andrea Logan White, Harry Shum Jr., Abbie Cobb, Robert Amaya, Kevin Downes, Alex Kendrick and Sammi Hanratty\/<strong>Directed by:<\/strong> Jon and Andy Erwin\/Written by: Jon Erwin and Andrea Gyertson Nasfell<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong> Moms&#8217; Night Out is sort of what you&#8217;d get if you took the classic comedies <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Out-of-Towners_%281970_film%29\"><em>The-of-Towners<\/em><\/a> (1970 version) and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Planes,_Trains_and_Automobiles\"><em>Planes, Trains and Automobiles<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>mixed in a little of with the somewhat less-than-classic <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Date_Night\"><em>Date Night<\/em><\/a> and tossed a healthy dose of Christian sensibility and turned on the blender. What results is a sometimes uneven but ultimately pleasant ride.<\/p>\n<p>Allyson (Sarah Drew of <em>Grey&#8217;s Anatomy<\/em>) and Sean (Sean Astin) are the couple at the center of the story. Allyson is the harried mother of preschool-aged kids who simply needs a break. So, Sean agrees to take care of the kids for a night while she goes out on the town with Izzy (Andrea Logan White) who is married to Marco (Robert Amaya) and has just found out that she&#8217;s pregnant.\u00a0 They&#8217;re joined by Sondra (Patricia Heaton) who has a teenage daughter (Sammi Hanratty) and is married to Ray (Alex Kendrick), a local pastor.<\/p>\n<p>While the moms are out gallivanting, Sean and Marco &#8212; with the help of Sean&#8217;s childhood pal Kevin (Kevin Downes) &#8212; take on the responsibility of babysitting the young &#8216;uns.\u00a0 In typical madcap-comedy fashion, nothing goes as planned.<\/p>\n<p><em>Moms&#8217; Night Out<\/em> doesn&#8217;t quite achieve the comic heights of <em>The Out-of Towners<\/em> or <em>Planes, Trains and Automobiles<\/em> (which, BTW, has great Christian values), but it is entertaining and likable.<\/p>\n<p>The cast genuinely gels together &#8212; particularly Sarah Drew and Sean Astin who demonstrate that they would be perfectly cast in their own <em>I Love Lucy<\/em>-style comedy. Drew even has the red hair for it.\u00a0 Robert Amaya and Andrea Logan White also make for a pretty good modern-day Fred and Ethel or Norton and Trixie or whatever. And, of course, between <em>The Middle<\/em> and <em>Everybody Loves Raymond<\/em>, Patricia Heaton is a master of laugh-out-loud comedies with heart.<\/p>\n<p>And this movie has plenty of heart &#8212; thanks to a script by Andrea Gyertson Nasfell (UP TV\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/review-scarecrow-and-huggy-bear-team-for-silver-bells-tonight-on-up.html\"><em>Silver Bells<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2012\/11\/touched-by-a-christmas-angel-della-reese-talks-about-her-role-in-a-new-gmc-tv-movie-and-the-ongoing-legacy-of-her-classic-tv-series.html\"><em>Christmas Angel<\/em><\/a>) and Jon Erwin who co-directed with his brother Andy. The Erwin Brothers gained Hollywood&#8217;s attention with <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2012\/03\/compelling-october-baby-arrives-in-movie-theaters-the-erwin-brothers-talk-about-bringing-the-story-of-a-child-who-survived-an-abortion-to-the-mainstream-movie-audiences.html\">October Baby<\/a><\/em>, a far more serious faith-themed movie that deals with the issue of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theabortionsurvivors.com\/\">abortion survival<\/a>. The brothers make a surprisingly deft transition to comedy &#8212; as do Kendrick, Amaya and Downes, all of whom are known much more for their work in dramatic faith-themed movies like <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.courageousthemovie.com\/\">Courageous<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>As the plot develops, Abbie Cobb (<em>Suburgatory<\/em>) drives much of the action as a young mom whose search for her baby, apparently misplaced by the child&#8217;s father (Harry Shum Jr. of <em>Glee<\/em>), ends up interrupting the other moms&#8217; night out. Trace Adkins and David Hunt (Patricia Heaton&#8217;s real-life husband) are also excellent as, respectively, a biker and a cabby who become involved in the chaotic search.<\/p>\n<p>The film will no doubt be particularly appreciated by traditional Christian families &#8212; especially those with moms who choose to stay at home to raise the kids. That&#8217;s a group that often feels putdown both subtly and not-so-subtly by so many movies and TV shows. In other words, social conservatives who are more apt to identify with traditional parental roles are probably more likely to like <em>Moms&#8217; Night Out<\/em> than those on who see those roles as themselves oppressive.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m just saying that the Erwins &#8212; and everyone involved &#8212; should prepare themselves for a little heat from mainstream critics who will claim that its theme is somehow anti-feminist. The Erwins, I think, see their film as just the opposite. They&#8217;re not saying that women shouldn&#8217;t work outside the home or that men just shouldn&#8217;t be trusted with kids. They&#8217;re just trying to put out into the culture a relaxing screwball comedy that also speaks out on behalf and in praise of the women in their own lives.\u00a0 No matter. <em>Moms&#8217; Night Out<\/em>, however unintentionally, is sure to bring out the culture warriors on both sides of the proverbial divide. Really, though, isn&#8217;t it about time people lighten up about such things?<\/p>\n<p>So, <em>Moms&#8217; Night Out<\/em> won&#8217;t please everyone but like the old <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Garden_Party_%28Rick_Nelson_song%29\">Rick Nelson song<\/a> says &#8220;You can&#8217;t please everyone, so you&#8217;ve got to please yourself.&#8221; If you don&#8217;t get caught up in the unfortunate politics that&#8217;s likely to be projected onto it, there&#8217;s a good chance that you&#8217;ll enjoy <em>Moms&#8217; Night Out<\/em> &#8212; both for the laughs it provides and the positive idea of appreciating all people (particularly moms) for who they are.\u00a0 For that reason, <strong><em>Moms&#8217; Night Out<\/em> is recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><b>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Synopsis: Three moms head out for a night on the town while the guys take care of the kids. Hilarity ensues. Cast: Sarah Drew, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton, Trace Adkins, David Hunt, Andrea Logan White, Harry Shum Jr., Abbie Cobb, Robert Amaya, Kevin Downes,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13,1257,14,22,24,31,1],"tags":[6676,1240,6678,6659,5183,6675,3359,4077,5114,399,2684,6677,6674,5238,5244],"class_list":["post-5116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-family-matters","category-feminism","category-gratitude","category-media","category-movies","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-abbie-cobb","tag-alex-kendrick","tag-andrea-gyertson-nasfell","tag-andrea-logan-white","tag-david-hunt","tag-harry-shum-jr","tag-jon-and-andy-erwin","tag-kevin-downes","tag-moms-night-out","tag-patricia-heaton","tag-robert-amaya","tag-sammi-hanratty","tag-sarah-drew","tag-sean-astin","tag-trace-adkins"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Movie Review: Faith-friendly comedy &quot;Moms&#039; Night Out&quot; presses powerful cultural buttons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie Review: Faith-friendly comedy &quot;Moms&#039; Night Out&quot; presses powerful cultural buttons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Synopsis: Three moms head out for a night on the town while the guys take care of the kids. Hilarity ensues. Cast: Sarah Drew, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton, Trace Adkins, David Hunt, Andrea Logan White, Harry Shum Jr., Abbie Cobb, Robert Amaya, Kevin Downes,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/05\/movie-review-faith-friendly-comedy-moms-night-out-presses-powerful-cultural-buttons.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-09T18:24:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-09T18:37:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5116"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5127,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116\/revisions\/5127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}