“I done a lot of things, that I ain’t proud of. Hurt a lot of people.” So says a repentant Gerard Butler as real-life ex-con Sam Childers at the beginning of the trailer for Marc Forster’s September curio, Machine Gun Preacher. How can Childers save his crumbling soul? By becoming a born-again missionary helping orphans in the Sudan… and by hurting those who oppose with the aide of a bazooka. What did you expect?

Debuting at the Toronto Film Festival, Machine Gun Preacher has some difficulties to overcome — namely that it’s another myth-of-the-white-savior film coming out so soon after the debate was kicked up by The Help. Of course, Childers is a real-life hero — and he did help build an orphanage in the Sudan that houses some 200 children who would otherwise be homeless or worse — so Preacher has a bit more credibility than what transpired between Skeeter and Aibileen, but still: that poster didn’t help. The trailer might, if only because it presents Childers as a man determined to overcome his past demons. That’s the stuff that works well here; the orphan-saving antics don’t, despite the presence of a pretty badass bazooka.

Other issues: Butler’s indiscernible accent, the always-great Michelle Monaghan reduced to giving pep talks at the supermarket (nice Egg Beaters plug, though), precious little Michael Shannon, and that corny kicker. There’s a good movie in this trailer, but whether Forster and Butler can pull it off remains to be seen.

VERDICT: Not ready to convert.

Head over to Apple to watch the trailer in HD.