As 2014 continues, unabated, to be the Year of the Religious MovieTM, we find ourselves faced with an unusual entrant in the growing genre of pandering Christian movies. Whereas claptrap like God's Not Dead and Heaven is For Real (to say nothing of the forthcoming Creationism screed, A Matter of Faith, which I look forward to downloading and devouring with a group of friends), which wear their messages emblazoned on their sleeves, Mom's Night Out is a bit of a Trojan horse.
Billed as a comedy of errors about a harried mother of three who takes an opportunity to hit the town with her girlfriends - only to have her evening out plagued by hilarious mishaps, while her husband struggles with even the briefest stint of solo parenting - underneath the labored comedy beats the heart of conservative family values.
If the presence of Bible-thumping celebrities like Patricia Heaton and Trace Adkins isn't enough of a tip-off, take a gander at the co-directing team of Andrew and Jonathan Erwin, who were previously best known for their anti-abortion drama October Baby and their faith-based 9/11 documentary The Cross and the Towers.
Who wants to wager $5,000 that Mom's Night Out doesn't end with our frazzled heroine realizing that her true calling is to forever remain at home with her shitty kids - and that, even though her husband may not be around all the time, a certain guy named Jesus will always be there for her? Part of me hopes that this is a covert sequel to Baby's Day Out, and the film will morph into a thriller about Joe Mantegna chasing people around Los Angeles, in and out of gorilla cages and the like.
Though, just my luck, they'd stop in front a gorilla and make some kind of smug comment about how those godless heathens think we came from monkeys - but then, why are there still monkeys, smarty pants? Check and mate!