Religulous (2008)

Director:

Larry Charles

Writer:

Bill Maher (written by)

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy

Tagline:

Do you smell something burning?

Plot:

Bill Maher's take on the current state of world religion.

Plot Keywords:

Jew | Muslim | Religion | Christian | Vatican

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Bill Maher	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Steve Burg	...	Himself
Francis Collins	...	Himself
George Coyne	...	Himself
Jeremiah Cummings	...	Himself
Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda	...	Himself
Reginald Foster	...	Himself
Ted Haggard	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dean Hamer	...	Himself (as Dr. Dean Hamer)
Ken Ham	...	Himself
Julie Maher	...	Herself
Kathy Maher	...	Herself
Aki Nawaz	...	Himself (as Propa-Gandhi)
Andrew Newberg	...	Himself
Fred Phelps	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mark Pryor	...	Himself
Ray Suarez	...	Himself
Yisroel Dovid Weiss	...	Himself
John Westcott	...	Himself
Geert Wilders	...	Himself

Also Known As:

A Spiritual Journey (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Larry Charles Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language and sexual material.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew | Arabic | Persian | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44539) | UK:15 | Australia:M | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | South Africa:18 | New Zealand:M | Ireland:15A | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Mexico:B15 | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

's-Gravenhage, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Thousand Words

Trivia:

The film used the fake working title "A Spiritual Journey" in order to obtain interviews with religious leaders. They did not know that Bill Maher was involved in the film until he arrived for the interviews.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The truck stop chapel is not actually located in Raleigh, NC, as claimed in the film, but is near Charlotte, NC. Raleigh and Charlotte are further from each other than LA and San Diego. Charlotte is an extremely conservative town compared with Raleigh.

Quotes:

Bill Maher: It's like the lotto. "You can't get saved if you don't play."

Movie Connections:

Features Superbad (2007)

Soundtrack:

Rat-It-Ta-Tat

Contemplative Religiosity For The Masses

Saw the world premier of this at the Traverse City Film Festival. I am a big Bill Maher fan and this was definitely the movie/documentary I was most looking forward to at the festival.

I was not disappointed, though I think it could have been developed a bit more. It seemed to play to the lowest common denominator in that a lot of issues were touched on, sometimes in rapid fashion, but none was examined closely for any length of time. Any astute viewer of Real Time already knows what Maher thinks about religion and many of his arguments with regard to the same. I was hoping for a more in depth analysis of some of the primary aspects of how religion can negatively affect our world in ways that people might not intend. The documentary did that only on the surface. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising as the need to draw people into contemplative thought in this area is probably more of a priority than retaining those that already are there (not to mention selling more tickets).

Subsequent to the showing, director Larry Charles had a discussion on stage with Michael Moore, with questions from the audience. Larry pointed out that he had many many more hours of footage that didn't make it into the final cut, and that he thought maybe a series could be released on cable of this material. I would very much like to see that happen as I think it would quell the thirst I had for more substance with less of the fluff.

However, kudos for Maher and Charles for doing this. If it is successful in getting people to think about religion in real world terms, then it has accomplished its goal.