Religulous
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Movie Reviews of Religulous
Movie Review: Please! Preach to the Choir!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you think this movie is preaching to the choir, I say preach on! Most mature adults are set in their ways anyway. Debating a conservatively religious person is like talking to a brick wall. Debating a liberally religious person is like wrestling a greased up boa constrictor in a tub of Crisco. I think it's great that Bill Maher and company have delivered such a humorous reminder to the rest of us that it is COMPLETELY OKAY to be a non-believer. I wish this movie was around when I was a teenager. It's confusing and scary to be a young non-believer when the world around you is so awash in religious propaganda. I appreciate the efforts of anyone brave enough to declare this reasonable viewpoint and make it more socially acceptable for the next generation of intelligent, rational thinkers to and admit that they don't believe in God.
If you expect that one movie should be powerful enough to change any adult's entire perspective on religion you're naive. If you were expecting this movie to be some kind of objective overview of world religion, you were clearly misinformed on the premise of the movie. If you want a critique of modern theology read a book. If you think this movie is too harshly critical of religion, blame the ridiculousness of religion! Frankly, it should be obvious to you. Why go easy on such potentially devastating primitive concepts?
The movie is hilarious and intelligent. Beyond that, you probably get out of it what you bring to it. Have a sense of humor. Bill Maher is a saint.
Movie Review: Funny / serious look at how religion is used
Summary: 5 Stars
Religion is used as a branch-off of corporate culture (police yourself, help us police you, help us manage you, etc.) as a means of social control and is typically more about the person or group doing the ranting-- er, preaching-- than the text. At a minimum, Maher wants people to ask hard philosophical questions and to grapple with them. He continually meets fundamentalists of all sorts and all faiths who flat refuse to do that. Who are AFRAID to do that. What you instead see is funny and sad at the same time. People who aren't secure enough to be live and let live, people who use religion as a psychological support, or most disturbingly, people who see themselves as a manager and / or enforcer for whatever / whoever they see God to be. Except the pot-smoker, who nearly sets his own hair on fire by accident with the candles behind him (!) and who is not much of a manager or businessman. There's even a guy who claims to be the second of coming of Christ and says people who don't believe him are "miserable"! There's actually a crowd listening!
It takes guts to go to the Vatican palace and ask passing priests if they think Christ would approve of spending all the money garnered from poor people to build a palace like the one the Pope resides in. And even more interestingly, one of the priests responds to the effect of, "Probably not." They finally kick Maher off the property, like the Mormons and some other groups do.
Call it a Michael Moore style with Maher's incredulous humor + just a flair of Borat.
Movie Review: This movie deserves a broader audience
Summary: 5 Stars
An especially important piece of documentation, I found Religulous less funny than billed, and much more serious than given review. It seems we're in a time that the practices and beliefs of religion, all religions, are beginning to appear to be... quite stupid. Bill Maher asks simple questions that are met with fear, hate, warnings and often complete disregard for legitimacy as believers are encountered with a basic reality: in the face of modern times, why do they believe? From simpler people and the more isolated, they answer unabashed: how could you not believe? And from the more sophisticated and intellectual we're shown a sign of promise: doubt. Perhaps from doubt there is hope.
I found the explained details of Mormonism to be bizarre, Scientology to be psychotic, Judaism to be horrible, Christianity suggested as a possible work of plagiarism and Islam explained as a madness you may not question. Everywhere you look, it's always the promise of "do this now because death is the real beginning, and we're right and they are wrong."
Bill Maher makes a very significant comment during the film to the point that its not so much those who "sort-of" believe that are any type of threat - they can be dealt with fairly and tolerably. But the extremism that stands right next to them breeds a growing danger. He goes on to point out, if you sort-of believe, then you sort-of don't, and from that the world has a chance.
Movie Review: Take a step back and look at it rationally
Summary: 5 Stars
Years ago I was asked by some visiting Europeans to explain Halloween. When I finished they just stared at me for a minute and then one said, "Let me get this straight, you decorate your houses with ghosts, witches and monsters, dress your children up in costumes, send them out in the dark to go to strangers' houses asking for candy?" Put like that it did sound rather odd. What Bill Maher (Politically Incorrect, Real Time etc) has done in this film is to look at the major religions of the United States (Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Mormanism, and Scientology) and asked "Let me get this straight....."?
The film begins in Israel, at the place where the end of the world is prophesied to take place. Mahr then describes some of the basic beliefs of the 'big three' faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and questions just how likely stories are. He uses much the same techniques as he does in his TV programs, primarily asking authorities in the field questions and engaging in an exchange of ideas. His journey and interviews take him from the Holy Land to the Vatican and throughout the United States asking just what individuals, (including his own family) believe and how do they know their beliefs to be valid.
Fans of Maher will find this film both hilarious and thought provoking. Those who do not care for Maher or who do not believe their faith needs to be examined will be deeply offended.
Movie Review: Entertaining and Informative
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot of people probably won't be willing to see Bill Maher's very
entertaining, often funny, and informative film, which makes the
case for doubt, or "I don't know", rather than making leaps of
faith which defy every law of physics and nature in religious
dogmas. As an agnostic, I naturally agreed whole-heartedly with
his premise, but I suspect that for believers, there is just too
much cognitive dissonance when people are taught from infancy
that what they believe is absolute truth. This is not meant to be an
attack on a particular religion, as Maher is an equal opportunity
critic, not of the people, but of the blind acceptance of any
dogma. The movie covers a lot of ground, and does not really
build up toward a climax, but rather goes from one subject to
the next in no particular sequence. Most of those he interviews
remain friendly, though some become annoyed when they realize he
is asking questions they can't answer logically, and he is making
them look foolish. I think all religious people should see this,
especially the similarity of Jesus Christ to Horus in 1250
BC. If your faith is firm, then you should not be afraid or
resistant to seeing this. But I suspect that most who bother
to watch this will find that Maher is preaching to the choir.
It should have been spelled Religiulous.