Machine Gun Preacher - A Review

Gerard Butler (300) delivers a blazing performance as Sam Childers, the impassioned biker and ex-criminal turned crusader in MACHINE GUN PREACHER from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. From Golden Globe® nominated director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball),MACHINE GUN PREACHER is the moving true-life story of discovery and redemption as Sam Childers takes up the fights for the children of East Africa and their freedom from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

An Official Selection at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and featuring the Grammy® and Golden Globe® nominated song “The Keeper” by Chris Cornell, MACHINE GUN PREACHER is complete with special features and commentary on the must-own Blu-ray and DVD on June 5th.

MACHINE GUN PREACHER is the inspirational true story of Childers (Butler), a former drug-dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children in East Africa. The explosive, real-life tale of a man who has rescued over a thousand orphans from starvation, disease, and enslavement, Machine Gun Preacher is written by Jason Keller (Relativity’s Mirror Mirror) and also stars Michelle Monaghan (Source Code), Golden Globe® winner Kathy Baker (Cold Mountain, Picket Fences), Madeline Carroll (Mr. Popper’s Penguins), Academy Award® nominated Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), and Souleymane Sy Savane (Damages). Producing is Forster, along with Relativity’s Robbie Brenner, Safady Entertainment’s Gary Safady and Craig Chapman, and GG Filmz’s Deborah Giarratana.

The 411 by Maria:
I am a huge Gerard (Jerry) Butler fan and have loved him since Phantom of the Opera!  In Machine Gun Preacher he plays Sam, a rough and tumble criminal who is hooked on drugs and upon getting out of jail finds out his wife has found God! She goes to church and supports him no matter what kind of trouble he gets in. I spent half the movie wondering if she was completely in love with him or just dumb. They say that behind every good man is a great woman and her constant support brings him to church where he finds the strength to finally turn his life around. He is Mr. Upstanding citizen helping others and suddenly running to East Africa to help rebuild.  Before you know it he has taken children in and all the kids know him. He comes home and builds a church and travels back to Africa to fight against Joseph Kony’s slaughtering army. 

Jerry does a great job as usual but like I said, I am a big fan. The story is interesting and at times horrifying even more so knowing it is a true story.  If all it does is entertain that will be the minimum. Hopefully it will draw more to know and hopefully fight against the onslaught of humanity going on around the world. So much innocence lost. But if nothing else, this film shows that we should never give up on anyone because everyone can turn their life around if they choose to. 

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