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

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 are upset and then proceeded to speak in Arabic and supposedly talk about how Maher is "not funny." In actuality, what they said was, "We don't normally hang out here..." and "The boss only gives us five minutes..."

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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.

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Quotes

Kirk Cameron: Learn how to share your Faith Effectively and Biblically. To be able to reason with people, learn to circumnavigate or go around the person's intellect.

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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 Fall from Grace (2007)

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Soundtracks

Blessed Assurance (Live in Atlanta, GA)
Written by Fanny Crosby (as Fanny J. Crosby) and Phoebe P. Knapp
Performed by Third Day

User Reviews

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.

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