In “Machine Gun Preacher,” Gerard Butler says, “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of that hurt a lot of people.” But enough about “The Bounty Hunter,” “The Ugly Truth” and “P.S. I Love You.”
Butler plays a hell-raiser, racist and ex-con who suddenly becomes an ardent Christian who goes to Uganda on an aid mission. Too easy! He blows that off and heads for Sudan, which, as always, is being scorched by a civil war. He builds churches, orphanages and playgrounds while a local warlord murders kids by the truckload.
The conversion of Butler’s character (based on a real person, though his exploits are implausible action-movie clichés) is an utterly bungled opportunity to show how a soul gets rebuilt through Christian faith. It’s presented as a simple case of him showing up at church and getting baptized. He is thinly written as both a selfless do-gooder and a heroin-addicted armed robber.
In Africa, he preaches sermons and is forever leaping out of pickup trucks to slay snipers and guerrillas in an update of Sergeant York. Or just call him St. Rambo. The Africans are, as usual in these films, either victims or psychopaths meant to provide a backdrop for the hero’s soul searching. He wonders whether he’s neglecting his children back home. Guess what? He is — as we learn in one of the few interesting scenes, when he cleans out the family’s safe to pour all of his assets on the charity bonfire.
By the end, Sudan is still a land of blood and despair. But good intentions are all that matters to this film by “Finding Neverland” director Marc Forster, whose intention it is to win some good awards.