Haven’t actually seen this yet…
Politically provocative talk show host Bill Maher skewers the current state of organized religion in this documentary that derives its title from a blend of the words “religion” and “ridiculous.” Making stops in Jerusalem, the Vatican and other holy destinations, Maher travels the world to talk to believers from a variety of faiths to find out why they’re so sure their religion is right — and why they’re so certain others are wrong. [Netflix: Religulous]
Bill Maher can sometimes be clever, when he isn’t being cruel and pretending to be ironic. However, there are few targets as juicy as humanity’s strange love affair with deities. Am looking forward to viewing this film – we had meant to see it in a theatre, but just never quite made it.
The film used the fake working title “A Spiritual Journey” in order to obtain interviews with religious leaders. They did not know that Bill Maher was involved in the film until he arrived for the interviews.
per Roger Ebert:
I’m going to try to review Bill Maher’s “Religulous” without getting into religion. Is that OK with everybody? Good. I don’t want to fan the flames of a holy war. The movie is about organized religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, TV evangelism and even Scientology, with detours into pagan cults and ancient Egypt. Bill Maher, host, writer and debater, believes they are all crazy. He fears they could lead us prayerfully into mutual nuclear doom. He doesn’t get around to Hinduism or Buddhism, but he probably doesn’t approve of them, either.
This review is going to depend on one of my own deeply held beliefs: It’s not what the movie is about, it’s how it’s about it. This movie is about Bill Maher’s opinion of religion. He’s very smart, quick and funny, and I found the movie entertaining, although sometimes he’s a little mean to his targets. He visits holy places in Italy, Israel, Great Britain, Florida, Missouri and Utah, and talks with adherents of the religions he finds there, and others.
Or maybe “talks with” is not quite the right phrase. It’s more that he lines them up and shoots them down. He interrupts, talks over, slaps on subtitles, edits in movie and TV clips, and doesn’t play fair.
Even better.