Action adventure comedies can be a ton of fun – if they are done right. It’s always disappointing when they fall flat and it pains me to say it, but that is exactly what happened with The Sleepover. I really did want to like it. It looked awesome and the cast was totally stacked. It just didn’t work for me. Why am I so hard to please?

Clancy (Sadie Stanley) and Kevin (Maxwell Simkins) are two siblings who couldn’t be more different. Clancy is an aspiring cellist while Kevin has a wild and untamed imagination that has often gotten him into trouble. The one thing that they do have in common is their seemingly normal, though uptight and weird (at least to them) parents.

So when they find out that their mom Margot (Malin Akerman) is a former thief who has been in the witness protection program since retiring, their lives are turned upside down. Margot is approached to pull one last job with her ex-fiance Leo (Joe Manganiello) and as she accepts, not only are her children involved, but so is her husband Ron (Ken Marino) who also had no clue about his wife’s past.

What follows is a night Clancy, Kevin and their respective friends Mim (Cree Cicchino) and Lewis (Lucas Jaye) will never forget.

I didn’t hate everything about this. I thought it was actually pretty funny. The kids, and Kevin in particular, had me in stitches on multiple occasions. This is quite unusual since I don’t often like child actors, but to me, they stole the show. I also loved how this was directed by a woman though it didn’t greatly impact my enjoyment at the end of the day.

Overall, the plot itself was predictable and I could tell more or less what was going to happen in each scene. There were also times where I felt bored, even with Mr. Manganiello on my screen. If he can’t change my mind about this, then nobody can.

Rating: ♥♥.5