Review: Religulous

Heaven Can Wait

No matter what you may say or what you may think, Bill Maher is a smart man. For those who might want to disagree, I'll put it another way: Bill Maher is not an idiot. He is an intellectual comic who does indeed look into and do research on the subjects he is ripping before he really lets the joke fly. It's a commendable quality that, often by comics, is put to the use of satirizing an idea that many have to come believe true in their lives. And that is what precisely Maher wants to attack in this film: the idea of blind belief, in this case religion. Maher goes all out for this very provoking documentary.

Maher travels the globe in search of experts to comment on that touchy subject of religion. He doesn't analyze every religion, but focuses on the "Big Three," those being Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, with the first and the third taking a higher presence in the film. Maher does go into some weird territory with different sects of religious groups, but he generally stays the course in talking with priests and rabbis who give their views in supporting their religion with the usual heavy handed questions given by a cynical Maher.

Maher has an agenda with this film, and it does center on a general attack against religion. His basic view is that religion is the heart of all evil, and any connection to it should be looked at as an act of insanity or it's blind ignorance from otherwise smart individuals. Maher does bring up interesting topics of discussion, and it is appreciated that he goes after those religions that we are most comfortable with (Christianity, Judaism), those we have no problem mocking (Scientology, Mormonism), and even ones that we would love to debate but are too afraid to say anything in fear of retaliation (Islam). You might think Maher is rude and unkind, but he is certainly not biased. That is, he isn't biased in the way he attacks religions he doesn't believe in.

As intriguing as the film is, it does suffer from a setup that diminishes its credibility. Directed by Larry Charles, who brought audiences Borat two years ago, there is already a sense that many scenes are going to be "gotcha" moments that earn laughter simply because the religious person is at a loss of words. To me, that is not funny nor enlightening. We know that religious intellect only goes so far, so I would have liked to see Maher probe deeper into his questioning instead of leaving us with a blank stare. To be completely honest, the funniest moments don't come when he's talking to the dumbfounded religious fanatics, but when he is doing stand up material that is unrelated to the topic (the best example would probably be when he is talking with a Latino man who claims he is the "second Jesus Christ" and Maher intercuts moments of Al Pacino's Scarface). However, when Maher goes after some religions, like Mormonism and Scientology, they seem like too easy targets. And his one journey into a religion that focuses an emphasis on marijuana seems completely unnecessary and seems more like an excuse to travel to Amsterdam, smoke pot, put it on film and have no consequences for doing so.

The bottom line that Maher puts forth is that religion is bad and any rational person shouldn't believe in it. That's a very easy thing to say from someone who is an atheist. For the rest of the world that finds themselves either grasping onto a certain religion or remaining somewhere in the middle, Maher's message is a hard thing to take in. His ending message about the stupidity of believing in any kind of higher power is a downer of a thought, especially when it is immediately followed by images of bombs going off and a thought of an apocalypse. Maher doesn't give any answers to the truth behind religion because he doesn't want to. He only wants to put forth doubt, which I think is the same copout he labels other who believe in religion. However, the film is very thought provoking, and is bound to stir up a conversation within you so greatly that you wish you could just walk into the film and talk with Maher yourself. But something tells me he'll just be as close-minded as the rest of us. But he'll still let us talk, and that's what he'll certainly let everyone do. *** / ****; GRADE: B