Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Moms' Night Out Blu-ray Movie Review

Is this a good choice for movie night in?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 2, 2014

The driving point of the story? Life with kids is chaos. The moral of the story? It's all good! Moms' Night Out explores the crazy world of parenthood and what happens when one fed-up mother leaves it all behind for a night of good times away from the kids and in the company of her two best friends. What could possibly go wrong? How about everything? Moms' Night Out is a proverbial "kitchen sink" Comedy in which anything that can go wrong does go wrong, and then more insanity is piled on top for good measure. Beyond the madness is a basic story about an inner search for one's center and whether that center revolves around the kids -- and all the headaches that come with them -- or one's own well-being away from the family, all of which is lightly wrapped in minor spiritual undertones. This is a Christian movie in the same vein as something like Finding Normal, a movie that revolves around God-focused characters and messages that only rarely play an integral part of the story. Otherwise, it's a pretty straight, family-friendly, zany comedy that only really suffers because it just gets too big for its britches.

Stressed.

Allyson (Sarah Drew) is stressed. Really stressed. A mother of several young children and wife to a working man who spends more time up in the air than on the ground, her life is nothing but a revolving door of chaos, of picking up the house, getting the kids to school and church, doing laundry, cooking meals, cleaning artwork off the walls, and dealing with the noise. Oh, the noise. She finally cracks on Mother's Day and invites her best friends, Izzy (Andrea Logan White) and Sondra (Patricia Heaton), out for a night on the town, away from the chaos of home and, for a moment, in the company of peace and quiet and good food, leaving the spouses and kids to fend for themselves on what will certainly be a night of binging on junk food and video games. It's seems like a win-win; what could possibly go wrong?

Moms' Night Out serves as a solid example of a movie that just goes too far overboard. It's cute and silly but rarely uproariously funny, and truth be told it goes so far and starts to feel so repetitive that it loses its luster and sometimes grates on the nerves nearly as much as it must on the characters who endure a broken children's song that plays loudly and over and over in the car; that's one of the running gags. It becomes not a matter of "what" but "when," not a matter of "why" but "how." It means well but it's an awful lot of excess to reach the end message that's as predictable as everything working out in the end, a message that basically says, "God has you right where He wants you." It's the only time the movie is really preachy, even as the characters are regular churchgoers and one of the three ladies is a pastor's wife. Otherwise, it's sort of like Adventures in Babysitting but in reverse, focusing on the adults out on the town more so than the kids, though the little ones -- and the husbands -- do have their fair share of screen time pandemonium in the mothers' absences.

The film's most important asset, then, is its cast. Undoubtedly there are nothing but high-energy and committed performances all around that keep the movie moderately funny even when it's most bogged down by its over-the-top and ever-increasingly absurd antics. Sarah Drew is quite good as the focus character, an overworked, overstressed, and self-pitying mother who is barely keeping it together. Her would-be cathartic blog goes nowhere, so she, in turn, goes somewhere only to experience real stress that comes when she's away from her kids, not with them. She's fantastic in every scene, conveying the physical comedic requirements of a woman battling anger and stress to the limit. She's believably in pieces for much of the movie, going with a flow that sees her only become more distanced from reality and ready to break until a gentle spirit rests upon her soul in the way of a few words from an unexpected source. There's subplot in the movie that sees her character, and her friends, and ultimately all of the characters, attempting to find the whereabouts of a missing baby which makes for a nice little reinforcing story device, basically saying that time away is time missed, that, basically, "you don't know what you've got until it's gone," be that truly gone, as in a missing child, or gone voluntarily for the night in an effort to escape what is really life's blessing, not life's curse. As for the rest of the cast, Sean Astin, Trace Adkins, Patricia Heaton, Andrea Logan White, and David Hunt are all impressive in their roles.

Moms' Night Out Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Moms' Night Out arrives on Blu-ray with a high end 1080p transfer. It's everything viewers would expect from a new release Comedy. It produces strong, natural colors throughout the entire spectrum, both in well lit interiors and nighttime exteriors alike. Details are sharp and satisfying. Every inch of the frame is robustly clear and accurate, from up-close facial and clothing lines to background details in a restaurant or out on the city street. Black levels are stable and flesh tones appear normal. Light banding is visible around bright light sources, such as a lamp or the sun, but this is otherwise an expert, eye-catching transfer from Sony.

Moms' Night Out Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Moms' Night Out features the Sony-standard DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation offers light music appropriate to the genre and audience. It's airy and nicely spaced, enjoying top-end clarity and a healthy, but not overwhelming, surround support structure. The track produces a good bit of background ambience in several locations, including an arcade and a restaurant, with heavier atmospheric elements and musical beats during a few sequences inside a loud bowling alley. Several one-off sound effects prove big and focused, like a jet rumbling across the stage. Mostly, however, this is a dialogue intensive picture and Sony's track produces the spoken word with an effortlessness and grace befitting the format.

Moms' Night Out Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Moms' Night Out contains a commentary, deleted scenes, and several featurettes. A UV Digital Copy code is included in the case.

• Audio Commentary: Directors Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin and Producer Kevin Downes cover a wide swath of information, including the project's evolution, stylistic choices, the mood on the set, the film's comedy and bringing it together through editing, characters and cast, story themes, and much more.
• Deleted Scenes (HD): The Hostess (0:41), Potty (0:24), Eagle Cam (0:58), What's Saturday? (0:20), and Call My Lawyer (0:31).
• The Heart of Moms' Night Out (HD, 3:56): A look at the center message in the film and how the surrounding elements support it. It also looks at the role of the filmmakers' wives in the filmmaking process.
• Casting Moms' Night Out (HD, 6:22): As the title suggests, this extra looks at the importance of casting, the casting process, and the qualities the cast brought to the film.
• The Art of Improv (HD, 4:47): A look at how the script served only as a guide. It also looks at cast camaraderie and shows several moments of improv.
• The Art of Action (HD, 5:11): This piece takes a short look at making the film's large car chase action sequence.
• Bloopers (HD, 5:36).
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Moms' Night Out Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Moms' Night Out isn't terrible --it's enjoyable in total -- but it could have been so much better. Here's a movie that just goes the distance in making things as chaotic as possible, and in that chaos it loses part of its charm and focus. The purpose is clear -- it's never in doubt -- and the ending can be seen coming from the beginning. Yet it's nicely acted and comes armed with a good little message about why everyone is here and where they are and doing whatever it is they're doing, no matter how stressful it might be. It's a Christian film that's light on preachy moments and fit for the entire family. Sony's Blu-ray release of Moms' Night Out features strong video and audio. A nice little collection of extras are included. Recommended for family movie night.