WITH more flops under his belt than the Easter bunny, Gerard Butler isn’t quite celluloid poison yet, but his last few films left many critics rubbing their stomachs and requiring a dose of milk of magnesia before bed.
The Scottish beefcake hasn’t had a solid box office hit since 300 and that was five years ago now.
A string of limp rom-coms followed the comic strip blockbuster but Butler is at his best when ripped, unshaven and yelling cocky one-liners at bad guys, before blowing them to kingdom come in an explosive fireball of retribution.
Fortunately, his latest outing sees him resume his role as an action hero and it’s possibly his best performance yet.
He plays Sam Childers, an ex-con and junkie who after finding “Jaay-sus”, turns his life around and travels to deepest, darkest Africa to do his bit for the Lord, leaving his long-suffering wife Lynn (Michelle Monaghan) and young daughter behind.
After an excursion into war-torn south Sudan, Sam is outraged to find the region’s vulnerable populace terrorised by a renegade militia group which forces children to become soldiers and commit unspeakable atrocities.
Shocked and moved he ignores the warnings of local government officials and builds an orphanage smack bang in the middle of the danger zone.
But providing a shelter and refuge isn’t enough for the gung ho biker and he leads armed forces into the lion’s den to retrieve kidnapped children.
Machine Gun Preacher does exactly what it says on the tin, but thankfully with The Kite Runner and Monster’s Ball director Marc Forster at the directing helm, the action is reined back in favour of exploring the more human aspects of this real-life Rambo story.
It’s an inspirational and often emotionally stirring true story about redemption, with Butler fitting the role of rebel-with-a-cause Childers like a glove, giving an impassioned and believable performance.
However, writer Jason Keller misses a trick by failing to explore the obvious paradoxes surrounding violence in the name of religion and the role of aid and charity work in impoverished countries.
Nevertheless, it’s a gripping, entertaining and eye-opening film which sets out to prove anyone with big enough balls can make a difference if they really want to and just about gets away with it.
Machine Gun Preacher (15) is out today.
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