Machine Gun Preacher

 

1 1/2 Stars

Realizing (and I do believe) that it takes a village, "Machine Gun Preacher" gives blood-soaked missionary work a bad name. It comes off like a morally unreliable story in which Gerard Butler saves Africa from itself. "Some kind of African Rambo" is how he's described, inaccurately (he's American, after all), but it's accurate in spirit. The events of the movie may be a little bit true, or a lot, but hardly any of it plays that way.

Here's how its subject, the former drug dealer and criminal hard-case Sam Childers, positions himself in his 2009 memoir, "Another Man's War." Childers, as Childers tells us, was a lost man, living a drug-addled, rage-fueled, sawed-off-shotgun life in Central City, Pa. Then he found God in 1992, swept the drugs and alcohol out of his life and, as part of a mission trip to Uganda, helped rebuild a war-torn village.

In Sudan, which he first visited in 1998, Childers confronted the grisly handiwork of the Lord's Resistance Army, a guerrilla faction notorious for its gunpoint recruitment of male child soldiers and its abduction of young females into the sex trade. Now the founder of the Angels of East Africa rescue organization, Childers built an orphanage near the Sudan/Uganda border and, in his own account and the movie's, led a noble band of Sudan People's Liberation Army warriors to rescue as many abductees as they could, killing when killing was necessary.

Here's a quote from Childers' book. Staring down an enemy, he seethes, "The Lord I serve is the living Lord Jesus. And to show you he's alive, I'm going to send you to meet him right now!" Blam! Another enemy smote.

Now, there are those who question Childers' version of his resume, beginning with the SPLA, a spokesperson for which has said, "The SPLA does not know Sam Childers." Either way, my frustration with "Machine Gun Preacher" begins and ends with the film itself, directed by Marc Forster with the same strained melodrama and synthetic emotion he brought to the screen version of "The Kite Runner." (He's made a good film or two, too, including "Finding Neverland" and "Stranger Than Fiction.")

As Childers, Butler is nothing but a one-dimensional rage machine. His family stays firmly in the background, even when they shouldn't be in dramatic terms. Michelle Monaghan does what she can as his ex-stripper wife, stuck with platitudes such as, "God gave you a purpose, Sam Childers." Kathy Baker is wasted as Childers' near-mute, rock-of-Gibraltar mother-in-law.

The only two who register with some welcome complexity are Madeline Carroll, who plays the Childers' daughter as a teenager, and Michael Shannon as Childers' friend, fellow biker and fellow user. Their performances feel vital and true. But "Machine Gun Preacher," which really can't wait to get to the ass-whupping part of this inspirational story, lacks any real sense of how Childers underwent his staggering transformation of character. Jason Keller's script believes in the man and in the children he no doubt rescued from harm or death. But belief isn't enough, and if the images of the film take us straight back to Sylvester Stallone in the jungle, then it's too late for honesty.

 

     RSS

 

"Machine Gun Preacher" Movie Trailer

 

MPAA rating: R (for violent content including disturbing images, language, some drug use and a scene of sexuality).

Running time: 2:03.

Cast: Gerard Butler (Sam Childers); Michelle Monaghan (Lynn); Michael Shannon (Donnie); Kathy Baker (Daisy); Souleymane Sy Savane (Deng); Madeline Carroll (Paige).

Credits: Directed by Marc Forster; written by Jason Keller; produced by Forster, Robbie Brenner, Gary Safady, Craig Chapman and Deborah Giarratana. A Relativity Media release.

 

more MOVIE REVIEWS ...

Recent Movie Reviews - Films in Theaters

 

What's Your Number?

What's Your Number?
Michael Phillips

Ally (Anna Faris) has been dumped 19 straight times. A magazine article sends her into a panic: If she's had twice the national average (10.5) of sexual partners, does that mean she's unmarryable? Thus begins Ally's film-long rummage through her roster of exes, with the help of the sensitive Lothario across the hall, played by Chris Evans

50/50
Bill Wine

Anna Faris the thirtysomething who reads a magazine article that dooms any woman with over 20 past lovers to spinsterhood. So she decides to head for Ex-Boyfriend Lane, where she can retrace her romantic steps to see if her soulmate might be a member of that particular fraternity. Chris Evans plays her handsome new neighbor

 

50/50

50/50
Michael Phillips

Though it's a cancer film, the tender and funny '50/50' addresses its subject with a refreshing lack of melodrama, making it honest enough to transcend the usual. Based on the true story of Will Reiser, a comedy writer and friend of Seth Rogen's, the movie follows Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who gets diagnosed with the C-word

What's Your Number?
Bill Wine

Sadly, actor-writer Seth Rogen's buddy, screenwriter Will Reiser, was diagnosed with spinal cancer at age 25. So Rogen did what any of us would do under the tragic circumstances: he started developing a big-screen comedy about it. Say what? Yep, it's the little c, comedy, taking on the big C, Cancer

 

Machine Gun Preacher

Machine Gun Preacher
Michael Phillips

'Machine Gun Preacher' comes off like a morally unreliable story in which Gerard Butler saves Africa from itself. 'Some kind of African Rambo' is how he's described, inaccurately (he's American, after all), but it's accurate in spirit. The events of the movie may be a little bit true, or a lot, but hardly any of it plays that way

Machine Gun Preacher
Bill Wine

Machine Gun Preacher tells the true story of Sam Childers, a violent ex-con who has a spiritual awakening and turns his life around. Gerard Butler stars as Childers, who, when he's released from prison, immediately returns to his violent ways. Then, after a near-death experience, he is born again and responds to a new calling

 

Copyright © 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.