The Religulous Post

Religulous is a biting, no holds barred stab at organized religion from Bill Maher. It’s Borat without the moustache and silly accent, mixed in with a Moore-style documentary. Most people won’t care for it, and it will do particularly poorly in the box office when there is a talking Chihuahua movie out- that said, I wish it all the best. Now I must admit I get the same guilty pleasure watching religion getting torn a new one, but I just don’t really like Bill Maher. He has a huge unfair advantage in these debates with people simply because he can edit and cut things to make him look like the victor. That….and the fact that he is right and a lot of these people are really rather disturbingly out of touch with reality. He knows his stuff. He makes good points and his stabs are cynical and snidey enough to make anyone laugh, but somehow I just can shake the notion that this guy is a real ass. If you can put up with his pretentiousness though, the movie is hilarious, insightful and dishes up a lot of quotable debate fodder the next time the topic comes up. Hell, even if you are devout, you should see it so you have some good comebacks and something to dole out on ‘the infidels’ in your lives.

The film says nothing that people don’t say about other religions when they attempt to undermine or belittle the absurdity of what ‘they’ believe, but the real joy in this movie is that it gives everyone a fair share under the spotlight of shame. Some of the character’s Maher meets and interviews are priceless and need to be seen to believed. My main regret is that I never went to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando when I was there. I lived just under half a mile way from the Christian Theme park and never went. After seeing the sheer hilarity that its fiberglass walls contain I really wish I had made the pilgrimage.

My only real beef with the movie besides it’s host is the ending. Considering his movie is about the absurdity of organized religion I find the level of preachyness that the film ends on to be a tad unnecessary. Yeah it’s a problem, and yeah people who are not of faith are not getting a fair shake. But “Grow up or die!” is not the way I’d choose to phrase that particular point.