Religulous Reviews

Um filme soco na barriga!
Um filme chute no saco!
Um filme pedra na cabeça!
Um filme empurrão mnna ladeira!

There was a time when, for my job, I was working on a late shift and since there was virtually nothing to do, I would watch movies. For this purpose, I would buy a whole bunch of very cheap DVDs to watch during this late shift. Eventually, I watched an incredible amount of garbage but there were a few exceptions and this movie was definitely one of them. Indeed, I really enjoyed this flick and I thought it was really hilarious. Seriously, it had been a while since I have laughed so much when watching a movie. On the other hand, I have to admit it, even if Bill Maher made some good points and displayed some solid arguments, the movie was definitely very manipulative, sometimes arrogant and even really mean with the people interviewed. Fortunately, I don't believe in God but I completely understand that believers would be offended by this movie. Furthermore, in the second half, Bill Maher starts to discuss other religions and, even though I understand what they were aiming for ('all religions are pretty much messed up'), it was really uneven and rather misguided. Indeed, what was great about the first half is that Bill Maher was raised as a Christian and, like me, spent all his life in this culture drenched in Christianity. Therefore, when Maher talks about the Bible or Jesus Christ with some religious fanatics, he knows more or less what he is talking about and makes the whole thing really sharp and insightful. However, when the movie starts to deal with Judaism or Islam, he obviously has no idea about what he is dealing with so the end-result was rather cringe-inducing. But still, what a funny movie... Indeed, in spite of its flaws, I thought the whole thing was really interesting and quite hilarious and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I watched this with an open mind, for I found it intriguing. Within the first 20 minutes, I knew right where this was headed. Bill Maher, funny sometimes, fails to do so in this documentary. If being ignorant with a know it all attitude is funny, then I don't know what humor is haha. He talks to Ken Ham at one point, Ham proves his point and Maher purposely twists what he says, it's hilarious.
Bill questions/makes fun of: Christianity, Judaism and a little bit of Islam. Interesting, fails to make fun of or attempt to, make of: Buddhism, Hinduism and the hundreds of other religions. Sure you can't have time to do that, of course. However, Buddhism and Hinduism are MAJOR religions. He seems to only target 'religions' that believe in God.
The questions he asks, have been asked before, making this documentary not even THAT original. Overall this documentary was poor, even with some funny moments.

As I watched the first 50 minutes of Religulous, Bill Maher's anti-religion documentary, I had a familiar feeling. I soon realized that the film was working for me in the same way that Maher's great HBO show works for me: a sharp observation of important issues served with a sizable helping of humor. And I thought, "Wow, if he can pull off making a full-length film be just as good as so many of his episodes, then this should definitely turn out to be a good documentary." The goal is almost achieved, but not quite.

The first half of Religulous features some great moments in which the interviewer essentially outwits followers of Christianity into revealing just how crazy and outlandish their staunch beliefs are, at least according to Maher. These scenes are especially marked by several instances in which audience members will surely gasp and say "Oh my God! He did not just say that to him" followed immediately by a fit of laughter. Those who criticize Maher's film for being one-sided are correct only in the sense that Maher makes his viewpoints quite clear, but the way he operates isn't unethical in the least bit, because you get a sense during the interviews that those he questions are being given a completely fair shot at defending their beliefs. Sure, as with all documentaries, editing was surely used adroitly to skew things even more in favor of Maher's thesis, but much of the footage depicting Maher's interviewees contradicting themselves and unsure of how to respond to certain questions is enough to make us aware that we're not being manipulated here.

Unfortunately, the second half of Religulous descends into mediocre territory. Maher makes a decision to stop focusing solely on Christianity and to cover Islam and Judaism as well. This is a respectable decision in the sense that it shows that the arrows aren't being aimed at just one target, but the problem is that as soon as it moves in this direction, the movie curiously loses its sense of humor, and becomes a fact-spewing film that drives on neutral and doesn't add much insight to the proceedings. Instead, it just rehashes much of what has already been said in the film (minus the humor), which leads to a feeling that the filmmakers just ran out of steam at this point. In this second half, Religulous also provides brief commentary on Mormonism and Scientology, but these segments are half-assed and feel more like filler than anything else. The final few minutes of the film feature Maher summing up his already-evident thesis into a final statement, and while he is undoubtedly eloquent in his closing remarks, this moment is edited with a jumble of sequences featuring explosions in order to reference the Apocalypse, and all they do is make this feel way too grandiose and self-important, in what would've worked as a more straightforward and simple final declaration.

One gets the feeling that the first 50 minutes of Maher's documentary would've made for a terrific episode of his TV show, with a perfect balance between insight and comedy. But everything that follows it is entirely unnecessary, thus making Religulous not exactly work as a full-length motion picture.

Bill Maher asks the questions that you've always wanted to know about certain religions. What is brilliant is that you will probably never see a documentary like this because so many are afraid to go and discuss this. I love his honesty and bluntness about what he believes in which at times, leaves some of the people he interviews a little lost for words. Probably best avoid if you're incredibly religious! If not then I HIGHLY recommend this!