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Machine Gun Preacher

Play trailer Poster for Machine Gun Preacher R Released Sep 23, 2011 2h 7m Drama Biography Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
28% Tomatometer 113 Reviews 62% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
Sam Childers (Gerard Butler), a former biker, decides to go to East Africa to help repair homes destroyed by civil war. Transformed by the horrors he sees, Sam ignores the warnings of more experienced aide workers and breaks ground for an orphanage in the heart of territory controlled by a brutal renegade militia. But establishing a shelter is not enough; determined to save as many lives as possible, Sam leads armed missions into enemy territory to rescue kidnapped children.
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Machine Gun Preacher

Machine Gun Preacher

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Critics Consensus

There's a complex man at the center of Machine Gun Preacher but the movie is too shapeless and emotionally vacant to bring his story to life.

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Critics Reviews

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Sara Michelle Fetters MovieFreak.com It is an overblown, histrionic, cluttered and a nowhere near well enough developed mess, the erstwhile humanitarian a one-note caricature I knew little more about at the end than I did at the beginning. Rated: 1.5/4 Jan 27, 2012 Full Review David Sexton London Evening Standard Gerard Butler is involving, even charismatic, always plausible as a man of contained and then uncontained violence... Rated: 3/5 Nov 4, 2011 Full Review Raphael Abraham Financial Times Despite the most worthy intentions, Childers cannot single-handedly save Sudan and Butler cannot save this movie. Rated: 2/5 Nov 3, 2011 Full Review Jack Fleischer Battleship Pretension There absolutely was a surface level enjoyment to this film, but it's ultimately just the tip of what appears to be a much more interesting iceberg. Mar 24, 2021 Full Review Jason Best Movie Talk The sight of a Kalashnikov-wielding white man swooping to the rescue of black children is awkward to say the least... But Butler brings a blazing intensity to his role. Dec 6, 2020 Full Review Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com A decent film based upon a compelling story, but you can't help but think it could have been so much more. Rated: 2.5/4.0 Sep 15, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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R. R Maybe not what you want to see from your comfortable first world armchair, but an excellent depiction of the horror of child soldiers and terrorism in Africa. We who live here know what lurks beneath the surface. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/29/24 Full Review Audience Member Absolutely makes no sense whether the reviewers would give us a low star. Real, humane, genuine. Best I've seen in a while. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/03/24 Full Review OKeegan The movie itself is decent....the story...everyone loves a based on a true story....Let me say I LOVE Gerard Butlèr...for his looks...not because I think he's a great actor...300 & PS I love you ɓeing his best work....but the ting with this movie...he just does not pull off the Grice or acent necessary...you can tell he has never spent any time in the south & he can not pull it off....he's got the look...but when he speaks on camara...he doesn't do what this character needs Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/10/23 Full Review John H Tells the true story of Sam Childers, a common criminal who found God and went on to do amazing things. While liberties were taken for the movie (of course), it is extremely well done and really shows the impact one person can have. One of the (extremely) few movies that doesn't use the Hollywood template for Christians (evil and/or dumb). Very inspiring! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 05/23/23 Full Review Kyle M Not much resonates besides facing the emotionally hard-hitting fronts and feeling the tense thrills as formulaically typical in the action sequences rather additionally branching to the involved facts being more than just grave stakes. Same goes for factual awareness as the story does deliver awareness over dreadful events occurring overseas and we see how a savior progressively builds akin to the narratives between "Schindler's List" and "Hotel Rwanda" in paying respectful tribute in the blessed heroism whilst being challenged. For any attention-grabbing reason would stem from the basic storyline and Gerard Butler's reputable stardom as he usually comes with grips on values amidst moral evolution, part of the fine casting to boost the factual characterization. While some dialogue should've been thought better as uncertainty been sensed upon their momentary delivery, the film's tense, humbly respectful and hard-hitting with a nice cast performing well, proven to be a decent dramatization being successfully delivered as factual presentation that serves to broaden the acknowledgement campaigning for more awareness. (B) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review steve d Too religious for my taste but the story is really interesting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Machine Gun Preacher

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Machine Gun Preacher

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Movie Info

Synopsis Sam Childers (Gerard Butler), a former biker, decides to go to East Africa to help repair homes destroyed by civil war. Transformed by the horrors he sees, Sam ignores the warnings of more experienced aide workers and breaks ground for an orphanage in the heart of territory controlled by a brutal renegade militia. But establishing a shelter is not enough; determined to save as many lives as possible, Sam leads armed missions into enemy territory to rescue kidnapped children.
Director
Marc Forster
Producer
Robbie Brenner, Gary Safady, Deborah Giarratana, Craig Chapman, Marc Forster
Screenwriter
Jason Keller
Distributor
Relativity Media
Production Co
GG Filmz, Relativity, Apparatus, Safady Entertainment
Rating
R (Disturbing Images|A Scene of Sexuality|Language|Some Drug Use|Violent Content)
Genre
Drama, Biography
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 23, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 5, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA)
$537.6K
Runtime
2h 7m
Sound Mix
Dolby Digital
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