It's not the message in Religulous that's a turn-off, but the way in which it's delivered.
Religulous (2008)
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Reviews Counted:141
Fresh:98
Rotten:43
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Religulous is funny and offensive in equal measure, and aims less to change hearts and minds than to inspire conversation.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for some language and sexual material.
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Oct 1, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $12,995,673
Synopsis: Bill Maher travels to Israel, England, the Netherlands, Vatican City, and across America, speaking to people about faith and religion in the very funny documentary RELIGULOUS. Maher, a stand-up... Bill Maher travels to Israel, England, the Netherlands, Vatican City, and across America, speaking to people about faith and religion in the very funny documentary RELIGULOUS. Maher, a stand-up comedian who has hosted the talk shows POLITICALLY INCORRECT on ABC and REAL TIME on HBO and has written such bestsellers as DOES ANYBODY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT? and WHEN YOU RIDE ALONE, YOU RIDE WITH BIN LADEN, reaches out to religious leaders as well as regular folk on the street, discussing the existence of God and the importance of organized religion. Maher makes it clear from the start that he is not a fan of religion and does not believe in God, and he has fun skewering people who do--including Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Mormons, rabbis, priests, politicians, scientists, evangelical ministers, and even a preacher whose church is a converted truck. He also visits such places as the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, where he interviews the actor who plays Jesus in a live show there, and the Red Light District in Amsterdam, notorious for its legalized drugs and prostitution. As he has done on his television programs and in his books, Maher questions literal interpretations of the Bible, seeing it more as a collection of fairy tales. Director Larry Charles (BORAT, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM) intersperses clips from Hollywood films about religion to punctuate Maher's points, often to hilarious effect. The soundtrack is also used effectively, including such songs as the Doobie Brothers' "Jesus Is Just Alright," Ben Folds's "Jesusland," and Billy Bragg and Wilco's "Christ for President." Like such Michael Moore documentaries as FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, Maher's RELIGULOUS uses humor--and lots of cynicism and sarcasm--to examine controversial theories and topics that people feel very strongly about, no matter what side of the fence they are on. In addition to making audiences laugh, RELIGULOUS will make them think. [More]
Starring: Bill Maher, Kathy Maher, Julie Maher, Mark Pryor
Starring: Bill Maher, Kathy Maher, Julie Maher, Mark Pryor, Andrew Newberg, Ray Suarez, Francis Collins, Brian Weiss, Aki Nawaz
Director: Larry Charles
Director: Larry Charles
Producer: Bill Maher, Jonah Smith, Palmer West
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Religulous
Thought is absent in Religulous, as is imagination. The movie is Maher's monument to Maher, as ugly and hateful as anything he decries in the film.
In this docu-comedy Maher and Borat director Larry Charles team up for a guerrilla raid on religion that employs many of the same bait-and-switch tactics from that Sacha Baron Cohen hit.
[Maher's] beef against Judeo-Christian tradition is studiously researched, and seems to point to where Maher's animus really lies -- he does live in a country where no non-Christian, is likely to be elected President in his lifetime.
No two ways about it, Religulous is going to offend a lot of people who have never even see it. Chances are, it's going to offend a lot of people who do see it as well.
Funny as it is, Religulous is too much an exercise in preaching to the happily nonconverted. You others be damned. Sound familiar?
Many may laugh, and many will surely be offended, but nothing here bridges the gap between those two reactions.
Maher’s first film project, Religulous, is a major disappointment because here, unlike on Real Time, he aims for laughs instead of insight -- and aims low.
As an exchange of ideas, this is a hopeless project, since Maher's doubt is as immovable as his interviewees' certainty.
Comedian Bill Maher brings his disarmingly direct humor to the topic of religion in Religulous. The results are often as surprising as they are funny.
Though fashioned as popular entertainment with laughs, light moments, and mostly humorous segments, Religulous is as serious as a disapproving Jehovah about its mission to upend our rote allegiance to blind religious faith.
One of the rules of satire is that you can't mock things you don't understand, and Religulous starts developing fault lines when it becomes clear that Maher's view of religious faith is based on a sophomoric reading of the Scriptures.
We need skeptics. They infuriate, but they also illuminate, and anybody whose faith can't take the knocks that Maher dishes out probably has deeper spiritual issues to deal with.
Religulous reaffirms Maher's wit, but it also sheds light on his penchant for moral equivalence.
Maher's wandering eye keeps Religulous - a very good movie - from being the great movie it could have been.
Religulous will offend you, make you laugh extremely hard and then scare the living hell out of you. No pun intended.
For most of the film, Maher uses the devout as straight men to set up his jokes. Though initially sidesplitting, over the course of Religulous, Maher has diminishing comic returns.
Maher understands this fine line, but in his comedic zeal, he sometimes forgets and steps wrong.
[Maher] converts 'honest doubt' into a rant against the ranters. Listening to it is like switching from Fox News to MSNBC, a different perspective but the same damn noise. My God, when will the racket end?
If you give [Maher] a chance, you'll find an intelligent, witty and well-researched cynic eager to give voice to an underserved minority.
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