Religulous

I just came back from seeing Religulous (Might I add that I have a hell of hard time saying it). If you didn't hear about it lately, it's basically Bill Maher running around highly religious people and discussing/mocking them in their beliefs. So it's a documentary, but in contrary to getting any facts it's more about taking a look at religion and people in it. There are a lot of funny parts in the movie, reminds me a lot of Erasme's The Praise of Folly.

The movie starts off with Maher explaining the inevitable Armageddon and how many people believe that it is going to happen. That leads in the brief look at how people are using the inevitable Armageddon as an excuse to pollute and destroy. I really would of liked that he would looked into that a lot more than he did. There are only the opening statement and the ending statement that actually advances in the movie in anything, right after the starting statement the movie starts with the interviews.

This is where the movie wins and falls. In the interviews you never actually learn anything useful about these highly religious people and their opinion. Maher just goes on bashing an mocking these religious folk, is it an intelligent debate? No, but sure is funny. Most of the time Maher tries to get his witty/insulting comment by and most of the comes with an hilarious effect. Not only does the movie comedy rely on Maher's comments (because I don't think it could) it goes on in showing small clever clips in a comedic way, often old religious movies. They are all beautifully timed an executed. Now the comedy saves the movie but in the end it never actually accomplishes anything and certainly won't start debate among the religious community like The Praise of Folly or The 95 Theses of Martin Luther did in the fifteen hundreds.

There is one interview with the guy named Jesus, he brings up really good points in religions if you remove the really high religious stuff into it, he even had Maher stumped a few times you could tell. There is also an interview with a funny old priest that really says what religion should be, even Maher seems to agree with him. Not even a handful of informative interviews, but maybe and most probably Maher's method is the only way to get past those thick skulls.

The movie ends with a really good written ending statement worth taking a listen. Too bad the movie doesn't advance and certainly won't cause for much debate, because most people could say he only bashes the people he interviews, which is true in a way. I really liked the film in all, so I would recommend it for anyone looking for a new perspective on religion or just to find a laugh.