2011. Dir: Marc Forster. Starring: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, Madeline Carroll and Souleymane Sy Savane. ●●○○○
I don't know where to start. There is so much wrong with Hollywood's latest over-simplification of African politics and neo-colonialism, Machine Gun Preacher, that any beginning will reduce the film to a mass of critical detritus. We could castigate the incoherent acting, the dumbed down screenplay or the thud, thud, thud pacing, and yet I feel it justifies a second blob, one for existing (no film ever deserves nothing) and one for trying to raise interesting areas for discussion, even if ultimately it fails to deliver on that promise.
On one level this is a simple sinner to saint story about a Heroin addicted Hell's angel finding God and going to Northern Uganda to build an orphanage to save the children in war-torn Somalia. Indeed I suspect the life story of Sam Childer's, the man who is literally dubbed the machine gun Preacher in West Africa is a fascinating study of redemption and ambition, but here the format is squeezed into a greatest hots montage of his life. We see him get released from jail, get angry because his wife gave up stripping, shoot up, stab a hitchhiker, go to church, get baptised, see a video about Africa, get caught up in a war, and so on. Each little vignette fails to connect with each other, his Christian zeal must come from something but we never understand what drives him to seek forgiveness, it's as if just by telling the story the audience should know how the man progresses to the next chapter of his life.
It's hard to know where the blame for this lies. I'd be tempted to say it's Gerard Butler, who switches to his usual shouty mode very early on in the movie and rarely changes gear - even when crying it's an obscenely angry form of depression. However he's not the only lost in this movie, the usually reliable Monaghan comes across as a mere cypher, failing to illuminated the long-sufffering wife and even Michael Shannon as fellow addict Donnie looks lost for most of the movie.
No I blame the script, which pushes forward into each scene without developing the characters in any meaningful way. I cannot say enough how much I wanted to understand the motivations of Childer's, especially as the presumed guilt and anger at the situation in Somalia begins to tip him towards the kind of violent fundamentalism he initially tries to reject. Not to mention several really horrid lines that completely took me out of the picture - when Childer's talks about keeping guns clean, the boy confessing his history out of the blue, when Paige (Butler's daughter) looking every inch a 15 year old asks Michael Shannon for a goodnight kiss (an incredibly creepy sequence that probably shouldn't have come across like that).
As I said there should have been so much more to this movie. At times the spectre of the Christian right's zealousness is noted, and the White America's colonialist tendencies is hinted at but these themes are never developed, essentially blunting any impact the movie actually may have.
Overall I would have to say this is a dull, missable film. I suggest picking up a copy of a fairly intelligent broadsheet, turning to the international news section and starting the conversation that way.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Machine Gun Preacher
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Film News (23/01/2010)
Slightly less news this week when compared to the overstuffed article we had last week. Still there's a fair selection of stories. We'll start with the most intriguing and move on to the good guys after the jump.
Maleficent
Tim Burton's clearly enjoyed his reunion with Disney on Alice in Wonderland, so much so he's started work on a Sleeping Beauty re-imagining from the view of poisoned spinning wheel providing Maleficent. Oddly I can't remember having seen Sleeping Beauty as a boy, although obviously i know the story, so I don't have the original as a point of reference but the idea of a Grimm fairytale with the villian as the centre is quite delicious. 
Obviously Helena Bonham Carter will up for the lead, but let's hope some non-Burton regulars get a chance.
Read on for dancing penguins, gun toting vicars, civil rights leaders and something suicidally depressing.
Gods of Carnage
In Roman Polanski news this week both sides of the abuse scandal have been digging in their heels. On the prosecution U.S. Courts have declined Polanski's request to be sentenced in absentia - probably indicating they want to lock him up. On the defence his wife has been letting on about Polanski's plans to film Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage. The play has had tremendous success in it's native Zurich as well as the West End and Broadway picking up a few Tonys on the way. It's a four hander about two well educated wealthy couples fighting about their children (among many other things) during one dinner party. Polanski has done well with small casts before (see Death and the Maiden) so this could be oe to watch, assuming he gets the chance to do it.
Happy Feet 2
The original Happy Feet was surprisingly adult for a cartoon, with some very realistic elements of how the animal kingdom is full of a violent struggle to survive and the effects of global warming on extreme environments. I doubt the sequel will be quite as viscereal but at least it's bagging an interesting cast. This week Brad Pitt and Matt Damon both signed on. I don't know if they'll be dancing penguins, but I'll let you know when I know.
Labor Day
During an interview with ESPN's Bill Simmons Jason Reitman has mentioned a number of porjects he's currently working on, including both a football and a hockey film, but coming next will be Labor Day, based on the novel by Joyce Maynard. It's a coming of age tale about a boy who struggles to connect with either his peer group or his family, especially his mother who is harbouring a deep secret. Juno proves Reitman has form with this age group, and the virtually agoraphobic mother could be a juicy role for any actresses of a certain age.
Machine Gun Preacher
Gerard Butler would like to remind us all that he can act. (Looking at his back-catalogue of drab rom-coms and mindless action you'd be forgiven for thinking he can't.) He will do this by starring in the biopic of Reverend Sam Childers (left), the drug-taking biker who found God then moved to Sudan to help protect orphans from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army; which he has done by forming a civilian militia. Whilst I suspect there's a powerful and interesting story to tell in Childers' life I very much doubt that Butler and the baggage he carries with him is the best way to tell it.
Martin Luther King Biopic
Steven Spielberg's untitled Martin Luther King biopic (he's definitely producing but no confirmed director is attached) is moving on following the hiring of Ronald Harwood to script with unlimited access to the estate. South African Harwood has a fascinating and quality pedigree including The Pianist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Browning Version so expect some high quality scribbling.
Ang Lee and James Schamus project
Lee and Schamus have collaborated on a number of projects over the years including The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and last years Taking Woodstock, so it was good to hear in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter this week that Schamus is already working on thier next script together. Although he has curiously described it as "the good old, tragic, suicidally depressing Ang!" Which presumably means less of this:
and more of this:
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Film News (16/01/10)
It's been an odd week for headlines, with some massive upcoming films that I've chosen to ignore. This could be because they're oddly dull - hello to Harrison Ford who's really keen on Indiana Jones 5 - or because I think the news is really bad - Sony are making a big mistake dropping Raimi and Maguire from Spider-man 4, don't they realise it was studio pressure that caused the drop in quality of the last film? Saying that there have been lots of other stories bubbling away...
The Chancellor Manuscript
Last year you couldn't move for news on Robert Ludlum adaptations. We had the Parsifal Mosaic linked to Ron Howard and David Cronenburg picking up the Matarese Circle and neither were a surprise following the massive populairty of the Bourne series. Both projects have gone quiet so this week it was the turn of The Chancellor Manusript about a novelist who gets entangled in a dark and dangerous plot to forever alter US policy (I'm guessing it's a foreign policy, or related to big business and not, say, about fishing rights).
Marc Forster has signed on to direct, clearly getting over the ribbing he got for Quantum of Solace, and Leonardo DiCaprio is looking to play the titular Peter Chancellor.
This is Robert Ludlum, by the way, complete with bizarre cigarette holder.
Consent to Kill
You hear a title like Consent to Kill and you can probably guess the plot... No?.. Well it's about a CIA assassin with a cowardly boss and a massive price on his head. Sound familiar? Of course it does, it's like a big mess of cliches, but apparently it is serious. We'll just have to wait and see what Devil's Advocate scribe Jonathan Lemkin can do with a premise like that.
Held by the Taliban/Nemesis
OK, so there's nothing David Rhode's diary of 9 months held in a Taliban stronghold has in common with Mark Millar's new graphic novel, except that both have some crazy rumours going round about who might be directing the big screen adaptations.
Kathryn Bigelow and Terrence Malick have both throw their hat in the ring for the former project - that's a big deal as Bigelow is extremely hot right now due to the stong Hurt Locker critical buzz and Malick, who has a superb track record and has never ben known to rush into things, very quickly said he was interested when news of Bigelow's involvement was released. Whichever way that goes it's worth keeping an eye on it.
On Nemesis Millar has announced on his blog that he's in talks with Sam Raimi and Guy Ritchie. That seems unlikely as both we surely be looking carefully at their current slates. Millar work is highly regarded though, so maybe there'll be some shifting to accommodate it.
Kill Bill 3
Quentin Tarantino has been mouthing off about his upcoming films by refusing to say what he's currently working on. He has said the third installment of the Kill Bill anthology is still planned for 2014, ten years after Bill died in volume 2. I can't remember why he wants to go back to the story, or who's turn it will be to wreck bloody revenge, but I expect it will be more self indulgent than enything he's done in the past.
The Outcast
Sadie Jones' novel about the teenage boy struggling to cope with the death of his mother in post-war Britain has been picked up by Blueprint Pictures. The book was a best seller back in early 2008 so it's hardly surprising it's been picked up, but as it has a tendency to focus on small gestures and character appearances to build tension it may be tough to adapt. We'll see.
Will
High concept comedies are very tough to get right, so it's with trepidation I turn to Will about a world where everyone's life is scripted in advance by angels except one day one of the writers quits leaving our hero free (free will geddit??!!) to make his own choices. Paul Rudd is Will, Zack Galifrankis is his striking writer, Little Miss Sunshine creators Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are calling the shots and the script comes from comic Demetri Martin. That's good pedigree and probably a team that can make this work.
Win Win
In the publicity tour for The Last Station Paul Giamatti has blurted out his next film will be Tom McCarthy's follow up to The Visitor. No details have been released about the film and so far everyone, including Paul's publicist is denying it, but it's good to see that soemtimes even the most experienced actors get so excitied about projects they spill the beans to reporters.
