Religulous?

My current wife and I went out of our way (to another state) to see the movie on its opening weekend. Loved it and subsequently bought the DVD. As a side note, we also bought the entire Golden Compass book series, and paid my ex-wife to take my daughter and her whole family to see that movie.
I think Bill Maher did a good job, but I would have supported it no matter what. If anyone has the guts, time, or money to make another movie about the subject, mediocre or not, I will buy a ticket.

I absolutely loved it. I laughed my ass off. You can never be condesending enough, ridicule enough, or mock enough when dealing with religion. I think Maher played it perfectly. It kept the interest and laughs alive throughout. If I had done the documentary, I would have hit them harder on their stupidity. But then again, I'm a "virulent" atheist. All-in-all, great film. I even went out and bought the dvd. :)

In a curious coincidence, I just happened to watch it also. It was pretty good, mildly entertaining.

Maher has the balls to say to many of these guys what I would only think to myself and maybe say aloud to fellow atheists later.

I thought his mixed faith family background was interesting (Catholic father, Jewish mother, which technically makes him a "born" Jew, despite the Catholic upbringing), and some of his early stand up gently poking fun at it was good (I loved the one joke, "I used to go to confession, but I'd bring a lawyer; 'bless me father for I have sinned. Oh, and I believe you already know Mr. Cohen here."); I also watched the DVD extras, with the extended monologues and deleted scenes. Some of the deleted scenes were so short, I had to wonder if the participants cut the interview short and refused any further questions??

It's clear that Maher slightly misrepresented the nature of his film (as Ben Stein & Co. did in Expelled), but on the other hand, its doubtful any of those religious leaders would've spoken to him AT ALL if he'd been more up front with them. The film is correctly identified as a Polemic, not a true documentary.

The ending segment reminds me of a point raised by both Sam Harris and Susan Jacoby...that whether or not someone was an atheist or believer in the 1800s might not have made much of a difference, in the 21st century, in an era of stem cell research, planned missions to Mars, and atomic weapons, religion is a liability and eccentric luxury we can no longer afford as a species.

Theme Park Jesus describing the Trinity as states of matter (ice, water, steam) was interesting, but made me wonder aloud "so what does that make the Virgin Mary? Plasma?"

Most shocking (to me) were the thoroughly modern Catholic priests he talked to...the one on Vatican square and the Vatican astronomer. The one on the square was so nonchalant it made me scatch my head and wonder "why do you even call yourself Catholic at all, dude?"; ditto their Astronomer, considering the Catholic Church's former persecution of Galileo...

I plan to watch the film again with the director comments turned on tonight or tomorrow.

and was very pleased to hear the audience give it a round of applause afterward. I even went on a Wednesday or Thursday night a couple of weeks after it had been out and the theater was more than half full; again very good to see.

And I agree with comments here; some of it was done well, other parts could've been better. Still, until we have a higher watermark for anti-religion films, this one is going to be setting the precedence.

I watched the movie last week and to be honest I liked that.

Some of the editing decisions were uneven, and the choice to go with a Fahrenheit 9/11 - style "counterpoint" text during some of the segments seemed just too easy.

I do not think it was too easy, as you said, it helped to communicate to a wider audience.

To sum it up, I would give 8 / 10 - not bad at all given I am really picky.

Maher's chops as a comedian/pundit outweigh his professionalism as a film-maker, and the movie seemed to occasionally sag and feel unnecessarily one-sided.

That said, it's still an immensely enjoyable experience, partly because Maher believes so devotedly in his cause (which is less about "there is no God" than it is about "God is dangerous"), and partly because his message is so potent. Watch it.

K

I too have had Religulous in my netflix queue for a while and just last night my wife, daughter and I watched it. Imagine the odds. Maybe it was god's doing that we both watched that film at the same time... that is if it weren't a documentary that was pointing out the absurdity of believing in god.

We thoroughly enjoyed it. There was some creative editing but the subjects of the film did a fine job of making themselves look like idiots.

Some of our favorites parts were:

The interview with the evangelical senator where the senator commented that there's no IQ test that has to be passed to become a senator. The way that attempted joke just fell flat was priceless.

The end of the ex-gay interview when Bill got a hug form the guy and said
"do you have a hard on?"

The Amsterdam Muslim gay bar. "The Koran is very specific about not allowing anal sex, for gay guys that just leaves you with blow jobs."

And the line that's in serious contention for the "best lines ever" in a movie: "Go trim the grass around the giant space penis."

I used to do politics, and there were times when I just watched in amazement -- and a sort of dark admiration -- at how transparent the lies and finagling were. I saw city councilmen and water board members actually wink at each other and laugh -- right there on the dais -- at what they were doing, and the fact that nobody was picking up on it. It was like watching normal people make broad jokes at the expense of retarded kids, and seeing the kids not notice ... except I was sitting out there among the kids.

I think it's obvious that most of the time the audiences of these people really are more than a little damaged mentally, to the point that they don't ever catch on to the con game. The con men get so used to being sloppy that they can't easily rein themselves in when the audience changes.

The best part of the con, for the predators, is the widespread societal belief that religion is somehow comforting and beneficial. If the occasional bad evangelist misuses it, that's not an indictment of faith generally, it's just one bad apple.

Which reminds me of something I used to hear when I was younger: "But communism would have worked, if they'd only done it right."

Or something we hear today: "But Islam is really a religion of PEACE! You can't judge an entire religion by the deeds of a few extremists."

...

Oh, yeah: I thought the movie was refreshing and well done.

or picking low-hanging fruit or whatever. Whereas Richard Dawkins went right to Ted Haggard, then leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, Maher made fun of guys in a truck stop. That was low.

When he did go to religious leaders, it was small-fry. He spoke to an ex-Mormon, a couple certifiable weirdos, and he smoked weed on camera. The section at the end with scary footage coupled to religion was clumsy.

I've already been dismissed in a forum as a "follower of Bill Maher" because he uses common phrases that other atheists use. Like "bronze-age nomads", "delusion", and "mythology". I had to explain to the other person that Maher didn't copyright those phrases, that they predate him.

Generally I was disappointed by it. Was more entertained by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino saying to the priest; "Well halle-fucking-luja". (Didn't like the ending of that film, either, though)