Based on the real life story of trailer park biker-gang member turned born-again Christian Sam Childers (Butler), Machine Gun Preacher follows its protagonist`s decision to head off to east Africa to attempt to singlehandedly take down the Lord`s Resistance Army, a renegade militia that`s in the lucrative trade of kidnapping and brutalising children. Michelle Monaghan adds some much-needed eye candy but little emotional depth to the film as Lynn, his devout, long-suffering wife.
While the real-life Sam Childers is undoubtedly an individual of myriad complexity, director Marc Forster seems to confuse intricacy with downright confusion, and the result is a character that seems so schizophrenic that one is unable to relate to him. Butler, normally a solid actor, seems to have trouble digesting the patchwork script, resulting in him resorting to some trademark Leonidas-esque screaming as a substitute for real emoting. We were almost expecting him to scream `This Is Sparta` as he mowed down legions of AK-47 wielding extras in the movie`s endlessly tedious, badly choreographed gun fights.
Most damningly, the two-hour long film spans a decade of Sam Childer`s life, but with an utter lack of conviction in its character`s growth, leaving us wholly unconvinced that there had been any evolution of the character, or even that any time had lapsed at all.
Despite its noble premise, Machine Gun Preacher is a sedated, stylistically joyless foray that deserves to be reincarnated as a serious documentary, rather than the Frankenstein-esque pastiche that is its current form.
Summary: The road to bad moviedom is oft paved with noble intentions.
Rating: 2/5 Raphael Lim