Religulous (2008)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Larry Charles

Writer:

Bill Maher (written by)

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy

Tagline:

Do you smell something burning?

Plot:

Bill Maher's take on the current state of world religion.

Plot Keywords:

Muslim | Jew | Christian | Religion | God

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Bill Maher	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Steve Burg	...	Himself
Francis Collins	...	Himself
George Coyne	...	Himself
Jeremiah Cummings	...	Himself
Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda	...	Himself
Reginald Foster	...	Himself
Ted Haggard	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dean Hamer	...	Himself (as Dr. Dean Hamer)
Ken Ham	...	Himself
Julie Maher	...	Herself
Kathy Maher	...	Herself
Aki Nawaz	...	Himself (as Propa-Gandhi)
Andrew Newberg	...	Himself
Fred Phelps	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mark Pryor	...	Himself
Ray Suarez	...	Himself
Yisroel Dovid Weiss	...	Himself
John Westcott	...	Himself
Geert Wilders	...	Himself

Also Known As:

A Spiritual Journey (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Larry Charles Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language and sexual material.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew | Arabic | Persian | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44539) | UK:15 | Australia:M | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | South Africa:18 | New Zealand:M | Ireland:15A | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Mexico:B15 | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

's-Gravenhage, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Thousand Words

Trivia:

The film used the fake working title "A Spiritual Journey" in order to obtain interviews with religious leaders. They did not know that Bill Maher was involved in the film until he arrived for the interviews.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The truck stop chapel is not actually located in Raleigh, NC, as claimed in the film, but is near Charlotte, NC. Raleigh and Charlotte are further from each other than LA and San Diego. Charlotte is an extremely conservative town compared with Raleigh.

Quotes:

Bill Maher: [in a deleted scene on the DVD] Religions are maintained by people. People who can't get laid. Because sex is the first great earthly pleasure. But if you can't get that, power is a pretty good second one. And that's what religion gives to people. Power. Power is sex for people who can't get or don't want or aren't any good at sex itself.

Movie Connections:

Features Immagini di un convento (1979)

Soundtrack:

Travelin Band

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?