Rotten
The need to cram in facts and events makes 'Machine Gun Preacher' feel too much like one large and needlessly glossy montage sequence.
David Jenkins, Time Out
Machine Gun Preacher
Hope is the greatest weapon of all
2011 · 2h 9m · R
Action, Crime, Thriller
Directed by
Marc Forster
Overview
The true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing biker who finds God and became a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who've been kidnapped and pressed into duty as soldiers.
Director and cast
- Marc Forster Director
- Gerard Butler as Sam Childers
- Michelle Monaghan as Lynn
- Justin Michael Brandt as Teenage Boy
- Richard Goteri as Gun Shop Owner
- Peter Carey as Bill Wallace
- Brett Wagner as Ben Hobbs
- Barbara Coven as Shannon Wallace
- Kathy Baker as Daisy
- Michael Shannon as Donnie
- Ryann Campos as Paige #1
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
29%
Tomatometer
Rotten
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.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rotten
The cliches fly like so many spent bullet casings...
William Goss, Film.com
Fresh
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.
Tom Long, Detroit News
Rotten
Why is it that uplifting movies based on true stories often feel so untrue and fall so flat?
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
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