Religulous (2008)

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

Director:

Larry Charles

Stars:

Bill Maher, Tal Bachman, Jonathan Boulden

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Bill Maher	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tal Bachman	...	Himself
Jonathan Boulden	...	Himself
Steve Burg	...	Himself
Francis Collins	...	Himself
George Coyne	...	Himself (as Father George Coyne PhD)
Benjamin Creme	...	Himself
Jeremiah Cummings	...	Himself
Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda	...	Himself
Fatima Elatik	...	Herself
Yahuda Etzion	...	Himself
Reginald Foster	...	Himself (as Father Reginald Foster)
Mohamed Junas Gaffar	...	Himself
Bill Gardiner	...	Himself
Ted Haggard	...	Himself (archive footage)

Storyline

Bill Maher interviews some of religion's oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers' Chapel. (Sign outside: "Jesus love you.") He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbi in league with Holocaust deniers. He talks to a Muslim musician who preaches hatred of Jews. Maher finds the unlikeliest of believers and, in a certain Vatican priest, he even finds an unlikely skeptic.

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Plot Keywords:

jew | muslim | religion | christian | trucker | 

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Taglines:

Do you smell something burning?

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Genres:

Documentary | Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language and sexual material

Details

Official Sites:

Lions Gate Entertainment [us] Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Hebrew Arabic Persian Spanish

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Larry Charles Project

Filming Locations:

's-Gravenhage, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$3,409,643 (USA) (3 October 2008)

Gross:

$12,995,673 (USA) (12 December 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Thousand Words

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the sequence set inside the Dome of the Rock, Bill Maher and his guide are approached by two men who speak in Arabic and are supposedly objecting to Maher's presence. In reality, what they are saying is "We don't normally hang out here..." and "The boss only gives us five minutes..."

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Quotes

Bill Maher: The standard doctrine that I was taught as a kid...
Reginald Foster: Yeah, that's all gone. That's all finished.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits, there is one last clip of Bill Maher with his mother and sister. He tells them "I'll see you in heaven", and they laugh. His mother says "who knows," and there is a title card "In loving memory of Julie Maher, 1919-2007".

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Connections

Features The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)

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Soundtracks

"Yiddish Blues"
Written by J. Frankel
Performed by The Klezmer Conservatory Band
Courtesy of Vanguard Records
A Welk Music Group Company

User Reviews

Bill Maher is a hero.

Just returned from a screening. Let me say I am a sucker for a good documentary and this film makes a load of powerful points that just cannot be refuted. As someone who believes in evolution as well as God, the film did enlighten me about a host of issues that I had been unaware of. In recent weeks my biggest fear has been that the Neo-cons were finally going to give someone the nuclear football that truly believes in the rapture. Bush and McCain and Reagan and even Bush Sr. catered to the evangelists because they are sheep and are as strong a voting block as this country has. But none of those politicians really believed things like every word of the Bible being literal. Now Palin comes along and she, like Huckabee who also scared me, is the real deal. The Neo-Cons have plucked an actual sheep to get the sheep vote this time. When people with beliefs like that are given power, the inevitable result is destruction, and that is the point that this admittedly at times hilarious film hammers in during the final 5 minutes. I call Maher a hero in that he fears the consequences of irrational religious so much that he is literally willing to put his life on the line to deliver his message.Make no mistake about it, this man will get death threats from the film and I will pray that that is all that he gets. I am not worried about a Christian extremist, though maybe I should be, I am worried about Muslim reaction to the film though he arguably treated that religion with a bit more of kid gloves than his other targets. I believe that everyone should see this film, but instead all the nuts that need to see this film the most, will probably be picketing in front of the theaters where the film is showing. Hugely entertaining, enlightening, hilarious and ultimately frightening what more could you ask from a couple of hours at the movies?