Religulous - Movie Review

What could very well be one of the most controversial films this year has just begun it's reign of unholy terror in the theaters. Religulous, directed by Larry Charles (Borat), and stars the outspoken Bill Maher (Real Time with Bill Maher), is set out to be a documentary about the absurdity in the certitude of religious belief and the social/political impacts religion seemingly has. Keep in mind that both the director and star of the film have comedic backgrounds, and if you have seen any preview of the movie (or if you know what Maher's take on religion is), you already have a taste of what to expect.

The movie starts off nicely, with Maher telling tales of him and his family and their own religious situations from past to present. Maher discusses with his family how after a certain event, they began to go to church less and less. Maher then questions his mother on what her thoughts on god were presently and she comes to the conclusion that she doesn't know. Maher quickly says back "Well, that's my answer too". At this point, Maher's direction of the movie sheds light and things begin to escalate.

Maher and Charles go across the globe visiting numerous religious hot spots (and some not so hot spots). From a church made out of a truck trailer to the Vatican itself, Maher sets out to question numerous types of people from numerous faiths. The line of questioning Maher has isn't exactly philosophical or thought provoking. The questions he asks were mainly for comedic value, and the people he interviews are caught by suprise largely due to Charles' form of documenting he parallels from Borat which is "Don't ask what you can and can't do, just do it until you get the boot". This makes for a very funny documentary, but at the same time, Maher does not seem to help his cause.

This is to be expected though. I have already read a number of other reviews for this movie and 99% of the reviews are fair, but they are missing the larger picture. It seems to me the movie reviewers went into the theater expecting to be completely enlightened by watching highly intellectual dialogue that ends with Maher converting everyone in the theater from religious to non-religious. For Charles and Maher to have done this would have been box-office suicide. Their film had to be a comedy first and documentary second for a number of reasons. One mainly being that both of them are known for their comedic works; it is almost expected of them to provide something funny. Another reason being they would most likely lose a lot of sales if people found out their movie was going to be a droll lecturing of philosophy and theology (which I'm sure appeals to a large group of people, but that group is no where near as large as the group comedy appeals to).

As I said, it was a comedy first and documentary second, and that becomes more apparent as the film comes to it's conclusion. After all of Maher's crazy comedic adventures trotting across the religious mindset, he comes to a very serious conclusive monologue. Maher states he is worried about where this certitude of beliefs over religion will lead humanity as he says "We learned to precipitate mass death before we got over the neurological disorder of wishing for it". He leaves us with a final plea to think critically and apply some doubt to faith and religion like we do the same everywhere else in our lives.

My rating for this movie is going to be split up in two, because I think that it wouldn't be fair to evaluate it over one rubric.

As a comedy, I give this film a 3.5/5. It was classic Bill Maher comedy done "Borat Style" (for the lack of a better adjective). Some of the jokes though have become cliched and old but Maher still finds a way to re-invent the old while still applying his own spin with some inventive, never heard before, comedy.

As a documentary, I give this film a 2.5/5. The reason I give it this score is most likely due to Charles' directing. This is as much a documentary on religion as Borat was on the American lifestyle. It lacked the intellectual edge that was needed to convince "fence-sitters" or to get a religious person to even begin to question their faith. If it wasn't for the ending conclusion of the movie where Maher actually gets serious and comes up with thought-provoking questions and ideas (which he never elaborated on), this score would have been even worse.

If you're an atheist, non-religious or a non-believer, go see the film for some good laughs but don't expect too much else. If you are religious, I would still suggest you see the movie, but for different reasons. Since you wouldn't find the comedy aspect all too comedic, some religious people (or really just anyone, but religious people is who the message was aimed to) can still get a good message out of the movie if watched with an open mind.