Seldom has wackiness been as tedious as it is in "Moms' Night Out," a Christian-themed film that is desperate to make adherents seem wild and crazy but mostly makes them seem incapable of raising children.

Some of these plot twists require more than the normal suspension of logic that often happens in similar comedies. Yet the characters are all appealing.

Basically, the moral of the story is: Don't go out. Because if you do, all hell will break loose - or rather, all heck.

What ensues is frenetic and never as funny as it should be because directing brothers Andrew and Jon Erwin are not skilled enough at pacing the action and varying the volume.

If the concept of a moms' night out is premised on the notion that mothers can never get away for fear their families will collapse in their absence, then this movie cruelly confirms that fear.