STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
After being released from prison, tough guy biker Sam Childers (Gerard Butler) returns to his trailer trash home set up to find his wife Lynn (Michelle Monaghan) has converted to Christianity and wants to try and guide him in a more moral light. Initially despondent to this, after a night of madness involving a crazed hitchhiker, Sam finds the light and tries to start a new life as a construction worker, only to hear about a building project in Sudan that is set to take him on a course to change his life forever. There, he becomes driven to build a shelter where children can get an education and live a safe life, without being rounded up as child soldiers. But, as he encounters opposition in Africa and the pressures at home he can't forget, he finds himself locked in a battle that will change him forever.
Telling one of those 'unbelievably true life' stories, Machine Gun Preacher is interesting, as it makes reference to Joseph Kony, the African warlord who was the subject of an internet only film that went viral last year and was made at the risk of the lives of the film makers. He has also caused some protests outside embassies around the world, and seems to be one of the bigger players in the child soldiers scandal around the African continent. He's certainly one who'll be on Amnesty International's radar for a while, and maybe he'll be involved in other films in time, but MGP is a firm starting ground.
Marc Forster is at the helm here, and after the pretty awful second Bond instalment Quantum of Solace, here he has a film that is not a vast improvement, but certainly a notch above what went before. The film is overlong, slovenly paced and not averse to the odd genre cliché of 'hell for leather bad guy finding redemption' films that have gone before. However, it's well made, passionate and interesting enough to warrant your time, with Gerard Butler adding another notch to his growing tugh guy repertoire, only this time with a little more cranial matter and bright sparks flying above. ***
After being released from prison, tough guy biker Sam Childers (Gerard Butler) returns to his trailer trash home set up to find his wife Lynn (Michelle Monaghan) has converted to Christianity and wants to try and guide him in a more moral light. Initially despondent to this, after a night of madness involving a crazed hitchhiker, Sam finds the light and tries to start a new life as a construction worker, only to hear about a building project in Sudan that is set to take him on a course to change his life forever. There, he becomes driven to build a shelter where children can get an education and live a safe life, without being rounded up as child soldiers. But, as he encounters opposition in Africa and the pressures at home he can't forget, he finds himself locked in a battle that will change him forever.
Telling one of those 'unbelievably true life' stories, Machine Gun Preacher is interesting, as it makes reference to Joseph Kony, the African warlord who was the subject of an internet only film that went viral last year and was made at the risk of the lives of the film makers. He has also caused some protests outside embassies around the world, and seems to be one of the bigger players in the child soldiers scandal around the African continent. He's certainly one who'll be on Amnesty International's radar for a while, and maybe he'll be involved in other films in time, but MGP is a firm starting ground.
Marc Forster is at the helm here, and after the pretty awful second Bond instalment Quantum of Solace, here he has a film that is not a vast improvement, but certainly a notch above what went before. The film is overlong, slovenly paced and not averse to the odd genre cliché of 'hell for leather bad guy finding redemption' films that have gone before. However, it's well made, passionate and interesting enough to warrant your time, with Gerard Butler adding another notch to his growing tugh guy repertoire, only this time with a little more cranial matter and bright sparks flying above. ***