This is a giddy,goofy little film with a vital message....ease back on the excessive consumerism. Reverend Billy (Bill Talen) is a performance artist that looks a bit like Elvis with a blonde Pompadour & delivers his messages much like one of those old time fire & brimstone preachers. The only thing is that instead of pounding Jesus down every body's throats (much like the Baptists do), Rev. Billy speaks out against the dangers of shopping. He takes his wife (who wears several hats as director of the performances,choir master,etc.)& his congregation on the road to speak out. A myriad of things happen on the road:some good,others not so good. One of the high points of the film comes when Rev.Billy & company go to Disneyland & manage to touch more than their share of raw nerves there. It kind of reminded me of that sequence in Terry Gilliam's 'Fear & Loathing In Los Vegas',when Hunter Thompson (Johnny Depp)drops acid at a casino in Vegas that resembles a circus (get the picture?). I'm told that there is another documentary about Reverend Billy out there. If the fates are good, perhaps I'll get to peruse that one,as well. CAVAET FOR THE BIBLE THUMPERS:Although religion isn't really slammed in Talen's performances,this film could be offensive to any & all fundamentalist Christians that are satire challenged and/or humour impared (in short:any body that wields religion as a weapon of mass destruction..please stay away from this film, so the rest of us can have a good laugh without fear of you going postal in the cinema during a screening of this very funny film)
Review of What Would Jesus Buy?
