Review of Machine Gun Preacher (2011) by Daniel V — 05 Jun 2012

Though the title of the film might make you think this is another movie made from one of those fake trailers between the "GrindHouse" features it is anything but. This is a film based on the true story of Sam Childers, a reformed biker gang member, drug user, and criminal who after an eye-opening incident decides to turn his life around by finding his faith.

While the story does well early on to focus on Childers the man and his decision to change we are never fully convinced the man trusts his faith or even his motivations as to why God is the choice he makes in turning his life around.

Director Marc Forster has done well in the past documenting small, intimate stories with "Monsters Ball", "Finding Neverland", "The Kite Runner" and "Stranger than Fiction" but has had trouble when it comes to action ("Quantam of Solace").

Here he tries to balance the two for the first time and it comes out extremely effective while at times, almost amateur. Gerard Butler, as Childers, gives one of his best performances if not the best.

He creates a fully formed person and while the convergence to follow God may be a little lost in the shuffle, Butler does a fine job of showing his frustrations with those who claim to be good people, who claim to do better for the world, but act as if nothing is wrong when they know the truths of what is happening half way across the world.

When Sam volunteers to go to east Africa to help build houses he is shocked by what he discovers about the LRA and their leader Joseph Kony (this only brings more awareness to the Kony 2012 movement).

There is no question what is happening is horrible and in that and in Sam's missions it is hard to fault the project for anything when it is clear they genuinely just want to tell this moving story.

I can't even condemn anything more about the film because what it stands for is so aggravatingly true. It is a fine film, really, with a great leading performance and good support from Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon.

There is nothing to really dislike about the film, but there might be the need for more from it.