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November 13, 2008
Playing at a Theater Near You (if you’re lucky)...
Religulous
The Gist: Bill Maher doesn’t know what happens when you die, and he doesn’t believe anyone else does either. He finds it perplexing that so many people seem so certain of God’s existence. Maher believes organized religion is a crock that has caused far more harm than good. In an attempt to support his views, he wanders around the globe interviewing people of all faiths, from Christian truck-drivers to a holocaust-denying rabbi to a hate-spreading British Muslim singer to a U.S. Senator to a priest outside the Vatican to some excommunicated Mormons. Maher questions, he pokes, he jokes, he angers, he frightens, and he does it all very well. At one point, he meets a man who seems to find miracles in just about everything. The man explains that he is absolutely positive that Jesus exists and that he will join Jesus when he dies. Maher asks how he knows. The man says he just does. Maher asks if being with Jesus will be better than being on Earth. The man replies yes. “Well, why don’t you kill yourself then?” Maher asks. The man froze. I howled. In fact, I howled throughout much of the movie. Although the topic was quite serious, there were countless laugh-out-loud moments, and most of them were laugh-out-loud HARD moments. It is rare when a film makes you laugh and think as much as this one does.
What Would Have Made this Movie Better: Maher gets a little too heavy in the final two minutes. He should have ended on a slightly more upbeat note.
Who Should See This: I think everyone should. With that stated, however, if you are deeply religious and are offended when anyone questions your beliefs, then you should not even watch this if someone offers to buy your ticket and throw in twenty bucks for kicks. On the other hand, if you are skeptical about religion, or a devoutly religious person who has no problem having your beliefs challenged, then find a theater, go to that theater, and enjoy.
The Verdict: I will see this again. A
Comments
The way to improve this film is to have someone whose face doesnt look like anal fissures doing the interviewing.
Making fun of religion and/or race is never not funny (unless you make fun of my people), but the person doing the questioning should at least not make my eyes bleed.
Posted by: pretty at November 13, 2008 11:42 AM
I've alway really enjoyed Bill Maher, but to me this movie just seems like one really big straw man argument. Bill picks on a wide variety of people, but are any of them really 1.Prepared to take him on, or 2.The right people to do so? I haven't seen the film, but I seriously doubt it. Bill is picking an unfair fight with this film. It might make for great comedy, but I doubt it really makes a great argument. And that's Maher's chief problem: he wants to be taken both seriously and comedically, but he sacrifices intellectual integrity for the point of his comedy. I've got no plans to see this, no matter how funny it might be. Not because I'm bothered by having my beliefs challenged, but because I'm bothered by intellectual dishonesty. It's the same reason I won't see Ben Stein's documentary or Michael Moore's work either.
Posted by: Philosofer at November 13, 2008 12:38 PM
Philosofer, Wouldn't it be better to actually see the movie before declaring it intellectually dishonest? I bet there is stuff in there that you've never considered before. Either way, see it and write a counter to his points.
Posted by: Fool at November 13, 2008 07:26 PM
Yeah, it probably would be better to see it first, but I've seen similiar styled documentaries where the experience of seeing it is so painful for me, that it's really scarred me off of pointed documentaries all-together.
Posted by: Philosofer at November 13, 2008 07:56 PM
I used to like Bill Maher a lot more than I do now. I haven't seen this movie yet, but I saw a few interviews he's given in which he discusses it. It seems to me that he thinks everyone has to choose to be either of the following: (a) a right-wing religious fanatic; or (b) an atheist, and that there's no middle ground. Whereas it's probably true that most people fall somewhere along a spectrum between the two.
But I'll reserve judgment until I've seen the movie. Sounds like it's interesting and definitely worth shelling out the bucks ($11.50 in Manhattan now). I trust your judgment, TF so I'm so there!
Posted by: teahouseblossom at November 13, 2008 11:00 PM
I really loathe Bill Maher. I should have run over the mysoginist twit when I had the chance, (I actually could have, he walked in front of my car in LA without looking.)
Posted by: LisaBinDaCity at November 14, 2008 03:24 PM
I have not seen passion of the christ, but having lived the last 28 years as a jew I have become scarred by things depicting my people as jesus killers. Therefore, I believe this movie must be intellectually dishonest. To just assume Jesus really died after all that torture without going to look for the body or to blame the jews without finding at least one jew who was prepared to answer mel gibsons inquisition is unfair and again, intellectually dishonest and lazy.
Posted by: pretty at November 14, 2008 03:53 PM
Oh pretty. You're funny.
Posted by: Philosofer at November 14, 2008 07:03 PM
