entertainment ave!

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 2:09 Long
A Review by:
- The Dude on the Right

When “Machine Gun Preacher” was hitting theaters I heard a couple of interviews, heard the synopsis, and heard a couple of people on the radio that liked the movie, especially Gerard Butler’s portrayal of Sam Childers, and sort of wanted to see the movie for myself even if most of the normal reviewers weren’t so kind. It came and went out of the theater, and I missed the chance on the big screen so when the Blu-ray showed up for me to review, I was excited to see it – My wife, not so much. Violent movies aren’t really her cup of tea, so I watched “Machine Gun Preacher” on my own, and most critics be damned, me, I really liked it.

Let’s get to the story…

The movie is based on the life of Sam Childers, a man whose life was heading down the wrong path, filled with drugs, alcohol, and biker gangs, and a wife, Lynn (Michelle Monaghan in the movie), who started as a stripper but then found God. Sam’s (in the movie played by Gerard Butler) life is about to explode in total badness until he, too, finds God while attending church with his wife. He also hears the story of life in the Africa, how they need help with even the most basic of necessities, and finds himself first in Uganda with the missionaries, building homes for the refugees, but Sudan is calling him, and against the advice of many he travels to the land run by Joseph Kony and the LRA, finding a world of unspeakable horror, and feels he is called to build an orphanage in direct competition with the atrocities of Kony and his men, and with the help of his wife, founding and running the Angels of East Africa organization.

There isn’t a lot very pretty about this movie, only that no matter where they are, no matter the atrocities around them, sometimes the joy of children can bring light to the darkest days. It gives a brutal look, and I mean brutal, at the atrocities occurring in the Sudan, as well as intertwines a movie about a man, Sam, who is torn between his life in the safety of the United States with his wife and daughter or trying to help the innocents of a nation, and as we see the movie progress, he doesn’t do that well on the home front for awhile, but thankfully Lynn is a strong woman and Sam figures it out.

We hear the horror stories of things going on in the Sudan, but you won’t see most of it on TV, although you might see a viral video about it, and sure, “Machine Gun Preacher” is a movie adaptation of Sam Childers’ life and the brutalities happening in the Sudan, and maybe I’m totally wrong, but most of it seems scarily true to form, from villages being burned to the ground (including the people inside), and the journey of one man on his own quest for redemption.

I found Gerard Butler awesome in his role, delicately working the transformation from biker gang dude to, well, still a dude with a mean streak but now using it for good. A nurse warns him that Joseph Kony started recruiting his followers in much the same way Sam was starting to do, but thankfully the children help keep Sam on the path of being a better man.

I really liked the movie, so much so I give it 4 stars out of 5. There is a lot of brutal violence, but then again, a movie telling of the atrocities in the Sudan couldn’t really portray the story without it.

Blu-ray and DVD-wise there is an extra about “Making the Music” for “Machine Gun Preacher”, which I found an odd addition, especially since I’m thinking there aren’t too many people getting this movie for the music, and even on the Blu-ray there isn’t much else, just an added extra with Marc Forster, the Producer/Director of the movie, who pretty much tells you everything you would think of about the making of the movie.  Get this Blu-ray for how awesome it looks, even the violence, on your big screen, and to appreciate the acting of Gerard Butler a little more.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:33 Long
A Review by:
- The Dude on the Right

As the credits started to roll when my wife and I were watching “Source Code,” she simply said, “Is there some extra special feature on there that will explain what the fuck they meant?” Happily, on the “Source Code” Blu-ray, there is, but sadly it’s embedded in the “Access: Source Code” feature, which pretty much makes you watch the entire movie, again.  She didn’t have time for that and relied on my infinite knowledge of the space-time continuum for an explanation, which, in transposing space and time, I basically shifted the conversation to “Did you like the movie?” She did. And so did I.

Here’s the basics…

Jake Gyllenhaal is a soldier, Captain Colter Stevens, and he finds himself transported into the body of a man on a commuter train.  It seems that this train gets blown up, and through the magic of a government program, he can “infiltrate” the last eight minutes of a person’s life.  So, his new mission is to find out who blows up the train, or at least gather enough intel to prevent the second attack that is coming soon.  The problem is that Colter has to pretty much re-live this explosion over and over again, each time going back to his mission-control capsule to report on his findings.  The other problem is that, along the way, he finds himself falling for a train passenger, Christina (Michelle Monaghan – and who wouldn’t?), and also learns that in conjunction with re-living the last eight minutes of this mystery dude’s life, he can also manipulate the events happening along the way.

So, for our multiple train rides, we get Captain Stevens learning from each trip, falling in love, learning the true value of the “Source Code,” and hopefully saving Chicago from being blown-up.

You want the key to why I really liked “Source Code?” Well, the movie people didn’t get too crazy with stuff, and by that I mean that we don’t get a lot of back-story about Captain Stevens, just enough to pretty much know he is a good soldier and misses his father, we also don’t get too crazy in the back-story of Christina, and we also don’t get too crazy into the total science of the story.  Nope, like an action-packed version of the movie “Groundhog Day,” instead of Bill Murray continuing to go back until he learns about love, we get a mission of saving humanity, with a touch of love.  And I’ve got to say, as the movie was ending, I almost got a little weepy knowing the fate of Captain Stevens, or did I? And even better? The movie clocks in at about and hour and half, just long enough to give you a great movie, and not one of those movies where you get antsy thinking it’s about 15 minutes too long!

I don’t want to give too much of the movie away because the joy of this film is the journey Captain Stevens takes from his first infiltration to his final conclusion, and telling anything more would really ruin the fun.

Your wife might not understand it, hell, you probably won’t understand it either (although you’ll probably try to make something up to satisfy her and make her think you are super-smart), but just sit back, strap it in, and enjoy a movie that takes you on a wild ride, albeit it’s sort of the same ride over and over again, on the same train, for about an hour and half. But it sure is fun!  It’s 4 ½ stars out of 5 for “Source Code,” and not just because the commuter train blows up in front of my college alma mater, Illinois Institute of Technology.  It’s a great rental for the both of you to snuggle, and even the older kids to enjoy with you.

In terms of the extras, for the Blu-ray, most of them are embedded in the “Access: Source Code” feature, which is really cool even if you do have to watch the movie again.  During the movie, you will get pop-ups with movie trivia, interviews with the cast, and most importantly, experts telling you about time travel that might help explain the movie’s ending.