Machine Gun Preacher 2011

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: The real-life Sam Childers, who's still working in Sudan, is probably more complicated than this. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's like Machete remade as an awards-bait snoozer. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: ...ultimately so scattershot when it fires all its rounds that it's hard to tell what, exactly, the film makers were aiming for when they pulled the trigger. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The story, written by Jason Keller, lurches and wanders, and the filmmakers seem flummoxed by its ethical and political complexities, unable to reconcile the two poles of their hero's personality. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Childers's varied, charitable life story warrants a movie, but whether that means it's okay to simply mash up sappy Christian piety and action-movie chaos is highly debatable. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Charts the hero's spiritual journey, and his Rambo-esque exploits, without offering a scintilla of mature perspective on his state of mind. Read more

USA Today: Perhaps if the role had been played by an actor capable of conveying greater complexity, it could have been moving. But the way Butler plays it, this is a shoot'em-up blood bath rather than an inspiring movie. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Sam's duality ought to make for some interesting storytelling and a fascinating, conflicted character. But Forster and Butler overplay that conflict, turning "Preacher" into a portrait of goodwill gone amok. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: It expresses something neither religious-uplift movies nor Great White Hope stories tend to acknowledge: the consuming frustration and loneliness that can come alongside a moral call to action. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Butler acts the role within an inch of its life. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Machine Gun Preacher'' is crude and ham-handed from its ridiculous title on down, but it still gets to some interesting places. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: There's more machine gunning than preaching, but what did you expect? Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "Machine Gun Preacher" gives blood-soaked missionary work a bad name. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Even the Sudanese orphans, whose plight is, after all, the film's reason for being, are presented as a grievous backdrop to Childers's calisthenics. They are poster-art children, framed to elicit our maximum sympathy. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: What looks on the surface to be yet another inspiring story of one man's salvation turns out to be instead both an examination of modern atrocity and a rethinking of the burden/beauty of belief. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: The cliches fly like so many spent bullet casings... Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Why is it that uplifting movies based on true stories often feel so untrue and fall so flat? Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: Machine Gun Preachernicely balances the action and drama, uses its locations well and has the good grace to celebrate a relatively unknown do-gooder, whatever his motivations may be. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Having such a complicated man as a central character is a blessing and a curse for the filmmakers, and the movie struggles because of this. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The filmmakers may have started with a real story here. But all they've come up with is a real chore. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Far too high-and-mighty to truly be moving. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: An utterly bungled opportunity to show how a soul gets rebuilt through Christian faith. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Childers' deeds are presented simply as heroic. By the end of Machine Gun Preacher, its title character has become a cartoon. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: If nothing else, Machine Gun Preacher drives home the inhumanity of the situation far better than any two-minute evening news segment can. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: It's probably Gerard Butler's best and most complete performance to date in one of the more inspirational stories of the year. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Machine Gun Preacher" is a combination of uplift and gritty violence, and the parts don't fit. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Somewhere in the middle of this 127-minute film, the energy drops out, and Forster never quite gets it back. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: What a surprise. Its grindhouse title notwithstanding, "Machine Gun Preacher" is a genuine drama. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In telling a true story, ambiguity can be an asset; but instead of mapping a middle course, director Marc Foster veers between two kinds of falsehoods. Read more

Dave McGinn, Globe and Mail: [Marc Forster]is constrained by reality, and so is left with a story that lacks much of a satisfying climax or anything like a proper ending. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: The need to cram in facts and events makes 'Machine Gun Preacher' feel too much like one large and needlessly glossy montage sequence. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Machine Gun Preacher is the umpteenth onscreen iteration of a white savior aiding the most desperate in Africa. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The Lord may work in mysterious ways, but "Machine Gun Preacher" is downright confounding. Read more