Watched "Machine Gun Preacher" tonight at a friend's house. It is based on the life of Sam Childers, an ex-outlaw biker and gang member who turned to Christianity and went to Sudan to build an orphanage in an area filled with violent conflict. As I was watching this, I thought, "This is really good. The journey of this man from a drug addict and violent criminal to a religious man, and the struggles he's facing throughout all of this in dealing with the hardships and violence he sees on a regular basis, whilst trying to keep his family together. He's a very well defined character." Then a second thought occurred to me: "This has a fairly religious message... I bet it has a lot of detractors because of this." I was not wrong, sadly.

I will say that a lot of the other characters in the movie are not all that fleshed out, although some are given backgrounds and conflict to overcome (or fall to.) There are a few large time skips in the movie, although even then, the pacing is somewhat slow for maybe the first 40 minutes or so. Still, this is an important movie that portrays the horrible things that are happening in that part of the world. Really puts into perspective how petty a lot of my problems are. I got misty-eyed in a few places throughout.

Go into this with an open mind, and you should enjoy it. I give it an 8 out of 10. Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom