Butler misfires as a man of God and violence.
- Don Groves, sbs.com.au, December 05, 2011
- , Empire Magazine, November 04, 2011
Gerard Butler is involving, even charismatic, always plausible as a man of contained and then uncontained violence...
- David Sexton, This is London, November 04, 2011
While the film might be biographically accurate, it isn't artistically satisfying: real people are inexplicable in a way that characters in films shouldn't be, and consequently, he feels half-finished.
- Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph, November 02, 2011
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, November 01, 2011
It's gratifying to see Butler giving a proper acting role the old college try.
- David Hughes, Empire Magazine, November 01, 2011
The clichés fly like so many spent bullet casings...
- William Goss, Film.com, October 06, 2011
The result is a message is too mixed to be effective.
- Gary Dowell, Dark Horizons, October 04, 2011
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, September 30, 2011
Why is it that uplifting movies based on true stories often feel so untrue and fall so flat?
- Rick Groen, Globe and Mail, September 30, 2011
What a surprise. Its grindhouse title notwithstanding, "Machine Gun Preacher" is a genuine drama.
- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 30, 2011
The Lord may work in mysterious ways, but "Machine Gun Preacher" is downright confounding.
- Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, September 30, 2011
Somewhere in the middle of this 127-minute film, the energy drops out, and Forster never quite gets it back.
- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 2011
"Machine Gun Preacher'' is crude and ham-handed from its ridiculous title on down, but it still gets to some interesting places.
- Ty Burr, Boston Globe, September 29, 2011
Childers' deeds are presented simply as heroic. By the end of Machine Gun Preacher, its title character has become a cartoon.
- Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer, September 29, 2011
If nothing else, Machine Gun Preacher drives home the inhumanity of the situation far better than any two-minute evening news segment can.
- James Berardinelli, ReelViews, September 29, 2011
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.
- Tom Keogh, Seattle Times, September 29, 2011
Despite the most worthy intentions, Childers cannot single-handedly save Sudan and Butler cannot save this movie.
- Raphael Abraham, Financial Times, November 03, 2011
Overly preachy and overly long. A missed opportunity.
- Josh Winning, Little White Lies, November 02, 2011
Even during this biopic's most absurd moments, Gerard Butler is terrific, conveying gentle and brutal equally well.
- Laura Kern, Film Comment Magazine, October 09, 2011
