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
Steven 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.

---

Plot Keywords:

islamophobia | anti semitism | propaganda | nihilism | religion | 

---

Taglines:

The end (crossed out) truth is near.

---

Genres:

Documentary | Comedy | War

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language and sexual material

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Hebrew Arabic Persian Spanish

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Spiritual Journey

Filming Locations:

's-Gravenhage, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,409,643, 5 October 2008

Gross USA:

$13,011,160

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$13,639,115

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

All of the "s"s on the DVD's closed captioning are dollar signs ($).

---

Goofs

Bill's rant about Scientology's take on the Meaning of Life is improvised and a little inaccurate. 75 million years ago the Galactic Warlord Xenu, because of overpopulation, brought Aliens, not Humans, to Earth (aka "Teegeeack") having frozen them with glycol-alcohol, stacked them around a volcano and blew them up with Hydrogen Bombs. The souls or "Operating Thetans" of these Aliens attached to Primitive Man. This is the source of everyone's problems, which Scientology supposedly cures.

---

Quotes

Bill Maher: [to the Holocaust-Denying Rabbi] Most Jews say "Never again!" With you it's "Again! Again!"
[to camera]
Bill Maher: That's it. No, I'm done.

---

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".

---

Connections

Features Saturday Night Live: Paul Simon/Linda Ronstadt (1987)

---

Soundtracks

Highway 61 Revisited
Written by Bob Dylan
Published by Special Rider Music (SESAC)
Performed by Bob Dylan
Courtesy of Columbia Records by arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

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?