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.

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Plot Keywords:

islamophobia | anti semitism | propaganda | nihilism | religion | 

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Taglines:

Heaven help us.

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Genres:

Documentary | Comedy | War

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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

Additional people interviewed on the "Deleted Scenes" section of the DVD release include: Howard Bloom, an anti-Muslim Jew and author of "The Lucifer Principles," M. Hasan, a store owner, Kaya Bousquet, a model, Jason Alper, a stylist; Zamzan Books and Burkah Store (discussing Muslim fashions), Benjamin Creme, a British author, artist and prophet (discussing Maitreya), David Icke, author, of "The Biggest Secret," and "Secrets of the Matrix" (arguing that the world is being run by "interdimensional" reptile-like creatures including the Bushes and the British royal family), Rael, and followers discussing their "atheist religion" that extraterrestrials called "Elohim" created all life on earth. . Michael Bray (anti-abortion activist from Wilmington, Ohio defending violent attacks on abortion providers even if uninvolved people are also hurt or killed) . Anne, Heidi, Carla, Doris Deborah, Michelle and Miranda (polygamist wives of a fundamentalist Mormon living in Salt Lake City, Utah)

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Goofs

Bill Maher conflates al-Hajaru al-Aswad, "the Black Stone" with the Kaaba, which is the building in which it is housed. There are several devotional objects in the Kaaba and Muslim pilgrims face the building rather than the stone.

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Quotes

Bill Maher: There's more than one mosque in the world that used to be a church and before that was a temple. Because it's a lot easier to just change the sign on the top and say "under new management" than it is to change the whole building.

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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 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

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Soundtracks

Jesus Is Just Alright
Written by Arthur Reynolds
Published by Music Sales Corp. (ASCAP) o/b/o itself and ALexis Music Inc. (ASCAP)/ Universal Music - MGB Songs o/b/o Artists-Music,
Inc. (ASCAP)
Performed by The Doobie Brothers
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records, Inc. by arrangement wwith Warner MusicGroup Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

Demands A Viewing

Two things about this film took away a star. One was that Bill Maher spent so much time with the ones he tried to make look bad that he didn't meet with enough experts who could further the points he was making. The second problem is that the people he interviewed could have easily made fools of themselves without him cutting them off and lecturing them. That being said, let's get to the good points.

For one thing, he makes it so clear how illogical the mass amount of people can be. He exposes phony beliefs and shows how they can become very protective against his film crew. The film stock they put into use is done masterfully. Plenty of laugh out loud moments (particularly the image of Jesus as a teenager, you will see). My word must be taken as truth when I say that the final part of the film MUST be seen. This isn't just about cracking jokes on faith. This film is about the human race taking responsibility of itself and stopping the damage it has been doing for far too long.

I truly hope religious people are not quick to brush this film off. For once, listen to the side from someone who is sincerely concerned about all of our futures.