Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The racist overtones are too strong in this film. A white man goes to Africa to save their children, because only a white man can do that. He suddenly becomes the leader of the resistance against the guerrilla. And starts bossing around the local government. To him it all seems reasonable because he is a newfound Christian. And has built a new church, because of course you need a church in a children's orphanage. The way religion is inserted into this story seems incredibly forced and artificial.Back in the American Midwest, he also builds a church, which is supposed to convince us this is a good man. While also being abusive to his wife, a murderer, drug dealer, unsympathetic asshole. Even if this is based on a true story - Turning this into some kind of hero's tale shows a lack of critical thinking from both the studio and director. There's no attempt of describing how large the resistance is, and the little mention of international effort there is, is completely ridiculed. This movie is glorifying and asshole who only knows one language. the automatic rifle. And forces the reader to accept this man is a hero.

"Machine Gun Preacher" tries to tap into the sympathy of the audience with a real life story, but the movie ended up being entertaining for what it was, but it was a mediocre experience at best.The story is about Sam Childers, a reformed criminal and substance abuser, who finds God, builds a church and then goes to Sudan to help the needy in a war-torn country.Personally, I found the story a bit too sappy and too much of a goodie-two-shoes, but then again, I don't buy into the whole Christian concept. But that is a personal preference, of course.Gerard Butler put on a good performance, although it was a bit out of his usual area of acting. But it is nice to see actors branch out to new things and genres.This movie is not the type of movie that you watch more than once. While the work that Sam Childers have done is commendable and commendable, the story in the movie just doesn't have enough weight to support multiple viewings. For me, this movie just didn't pack enough punch to really be a great movie, despite of however larger-than-life compassion for life and selflessness it tried to tell.

I have never seen a movie about a protagonist that was so unsympathetic. He pretty much spent 90% of his life terrorizing everyone in his community and then he stabs some drifter and suddenly he finds Jesus....give me a break. He then magically gives the American dream to his family that he neglected and abused for 90% of his life and suddenly everything is A-okay.He then starts his own church and a mission in Africa. He spends most of his time neglecting his business and church to hide from his problems in Africa. It's like he can't focus on the problems plaguing his community, which obviously has problems, if there is such rampant crime and drug use, which he knows of first hand. Anyways, he gives some warriors of god speech to his church so they can sponsor his little jihad/vacation in Sudan.He also goes to his former boss and pretty much uses the fear of god's wrath to bully him into paying for his little crusade. When his former boss doesn't give him exactly the dollar amount he demands, he storms out of the party his former boss invited him to, like an angry child and throws a temper tantrum at his wife and kids.I also love how he cares so much for these people half way across the globe rather than his own friends and family. He pretty much just ignores his family, browbeats and verbally abuses his daughter when she just asked for some money to get a limo to her prom (even though he took out a freaking loan he has no hope of repaying for his mission in Africa), and leaves his friend to die all so he could run away to Africa and play hero. It's partially his wife's fault because when he wanted to quite (like any person with a brain would after watching their mission burn down and be thrown into a war zone), his idiotic wife tells him to stay there, waste more money and possibly die.In short, it was a movie about a bunch of people with a messiah complex that would rather play savior then actually think for themselves. If these people had even a little bit of a sense of self or logic, then half of the stuff in this movie would not have happened.

I felt this movie deserved an 8 and that slowly trickled down to a 7 at the end. The beginning things moved well but halfway through nothing new happens, it turns into a pointless drama then ends. In my opinion this movie should have stuck to one genre and i think it would have done better. Machine gun preacher starts edgy and brutally realistic, turns to a stand still drama and ends like a documentary. Some of the dialog and scenes are aggressive and not politically correct but makes no statement just like it was thrown into the movie for realism and nothing else. There are lots of scenes where i get the feeling that certain groups of people will take offense to but does nothing with it. Take American History X for example they pushed obvious boundaries but made statements that made it not as offensive and balanced at the very end. This movie is worth watching, i just feel with better direction it would have been better liked and better received