Review: Religulous (2008)

Director: Larry Charles (Borat, Bruno)

Cast: Bill Maher (Real Time with Bill Maher)

The Deal: Bill Maher travels the world interviewing some of religion's oddest believers. He talks to truckers at a Truckers' Chapel, visits a museum that believes dinosaurs and humans lived together, travels to a religious theme park in Florida, and encounters a few other "crazy" people. Maher is a "doubter", someone who believes one can never know if God exists, but thinks it is highly doubtful. Oddly enough, a Vatican priest proves to side closest to Maher's own beliefs.

Thoughts: Being somewhat of an agnostic myself, I was quite drawn to the film, as I found myself easily siding with Maher in every confrontation. His arguments were actually quite interesting and clever, and he had a few pieces of information I had never known about, which I found absolutely fascinating. Viewers with Maher's beliefs will find the film brilliant and hysterical, but religious types may only become enraged and insulted.

Though I agree with his arguments, Maher was incredibly disrespectful towards the people he interviews. At times it can be funny, but whenever someone doesn't agree with what he says, he essentially calls them an idiot. He looks down on religious folk as less intelligent and in need of a good shock of reality. Some of his interviewees may have deserved this, but plenty of them were quite friendly and warranted a little more respect. I know that is not what Maher was aiming for, as the film is clearly edited to depict them as less intelligent than they might actually be, but when someone has to get up and leave to prevent physically attacking you, it might be best to dial it down a bit.

Getting back to the good points Maher brings up, I thought two of them really stood out and make for the best arguments. The first involves an Egyptian story that essentially plays out identically to the stories in the bible, but was written far earlier. The point is to show that Jesus is just a retelling of a different story, and therefore never existed. The people he interviews don't really have a response to this, and try to circle around the point. The next argument he makes is that about 19% of the world is not religious, yet organizations like the NRA have vastly smaller numbers of supporters yet get plenty of attention, while the non-believers are shrugged off to the side. It's an interesting statistic that when compared to these other organizations, really makes for a strong point.

Verdict: Though he may have been too insensitive and insulting to religious believers, Maher poses some excellent arguments. The film is very interesting, and at times quite funny. Don't take it too seriously, but it will still get you thinking. ☆☆☆☆