Review of Religulous (2008) by Edgar C — 19 May 2010

From this moment on, I'll try my best NOT to curse throughout this small, quickly-written review.

Ok, here I go:

With the popularity of "Seinfeld" and Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) behind, Larry Charles grabs an ex-comedian puppet named Bill Maher. The reasons why he actually chose him, although pretty obvious, are unknown. So, here we are with the talktative, FUCKING racist Maher, making fundamental questions about the current state of the different religions that can be found around the world, mostly focusing on the existence of God and attacking ignorant Catholics and Christians.

It is more than obvious that, instead of applying the concept of objective neutrality, a concept that all documentaries should have, Religulous is devoid of morality and decides to laugh at the beliefs of religious people. It refuses the style of a brutally thought-provoking Deliver Us from Evil (2006) and relies on mockery. One thing is to direct a fucking insulting piece of goddamn shit like Religulous from an atheistic point of view, and another one is to show respect towards these beliefs and even try to show your own (Pasolini's Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo, anyone?). Naturally, atheists will find this documentary either "amusing" and "accurate", or "daring". This means, they will love it. If not, at least they will find the nonstop jokes within very smart and intelligently crafted (give me a break).

However, there are two kinds of audiences that will protest against Religulous: those who DO own a religion, and those who can actually read between lines and see the stinking conservative and irreverent aroma that predominates in the documentary. Maher is an atheist. That's OK; he refuses to accept the existence of God and WILL go to hell. What can be done? There are no gray tones in accepting the factual existence of God. Nevertheless, religious people attacking atheists and atheists insulting Catholics, Christians, Buddhists, Islamics and Muslims are the base of today's societally conflictive issues. Maher, through Charles, is one of the endless examples of society's incapacity of differentiating the divine religions and the human institutions and horrendous, disciplinary customs and rituals. Just becase a stupid atheist had the balls of exposing his God-is-a-ridiculous-statement-and-the-Bible-is-a-senseless-book-of-fairy-tales-written-by-men-with-penises ideas does not mean that he is the brilliant comedian that is inviting us to start stepping towards the right direction for the sake of society's progress (hahaha, for those retards who actually believe that, I really feel sorry for your asses).

Obviously, as any good example of a manipulative and fake documentary, Religulous is so obviously edited that smart people cannot help but to laugh at it, but not with it. Charles obviously sought for easy targets to attack and laugh at. From authors of religious books to American Senators, the whole cast including Maher becomes joyful each time they question ignorant persons and edit the sequence so it can be transformed into a "gotcha!" scene. However, in order to achieve effectiveness for the final outcome of Religulous so it can make atheists laugh happily, the documentary evidently ommits those interviewees that were able to surpass the arguments of Maher, a stupid man that swears in one scene he is "trying to believe" and stating in another scene that he feels worried " because people who believe in a talking snake are running his country".

Unintentionally, the documentary hits few points from the right angle. Seeing a man that swears HE is Jesus Christ helps us to witness another breed of monsters that slows down mankind's religious evolution. Therefore, there are several shocking moments that fairly attack people's blind fanatism and miscomprehension of the Holy Bible, including the absurdity of their arguments, and that also makes us notice of the misinterpretation of the Bible laws that used to correct mankind's behavior BEFORE the times of Jesus Christ (Old Testament) and the ones that apply now since the Holy Spirit started to exist since the New Testament, a concept that Maher will NEVER understand, and a concept that, sadly, modern religious governors and other political and religious figures also do not understand(!) "You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though.".

So you think that An Inconvenient Truth is manipulative and lousy? You say Michael Moore is biased and one-sided? LOL! Religulous is one of the most untrue, insulting, misleading, stereotypical, intentionally racist, moronic, manipulative, irreverent, lousy, propagandistic, conservative, narrow-minded, unfunny, randomly edited, controlled and disrespectful documentaries ever commited to celluloid. Just with the purpose of adding irony to this crappy, amateurish formula, Maher "gets serious in the end" and provides the true lesson of Religulous but stating the exact opposite. He is actually calling religious people "stupid" and is stating that they are the cause of basically every single major internal and international conflict throughout history, ludicrously using WWII and Vietnam footage (haha, now THAT's funny). Do you think that pop culture references and sudden insertion of cartoons and film clips compensate a huge lack of talent and meaningful substance? Do you think Bill Maher is actually funny? Did you laugh? Then YOU, my dear "deaf" and "blind" atheist reader, are the cause of the actuality's ignorance for the truth, especially when agreeing with every single word of "The Puppet" Maher. Larry Charles cowardly hides behind the camera and lets the jokes to roll endlessly, but the problem of nowadays' political conflicts is not religion, but intolerance. It is the immortal and never-ending pride and ego of the human being that does not accept his rotten nature, his original sinful state, and is afraid of accepting the mistakes of oneself. It is the fear of conceiving a superior, omniscient and invisible entity of imminent presence.

Are you Catholic? Congratulations.

Are you Christian? Congratulations.

Are you a homosexual? Congratulations. Screw the people that do not accept you.

Are you an atheist? Good. We will keep praying for you daily.

Do you disrespect the beliefs of others? FUCK YOU!

Do you consider religion as the opium of the masses? Think again, my dear repulsive Marxist, since God exists.

Did you laugh / found the jokes smart? You clearly know nothing about comedy AND morality.

Did you like / enjoy / find this documentary entertaining? You, sir, clearly don't know SHIT about good documentaries. Go watch Deliver Us from Evil (2006) and learn several valuable lessons. At least Amy was able to be accurate, honest and objective, contrasting the usefulness of believing in God and the strength of faith with the repulsive, Catholic institutions. Oh my, Bergman and Tarkovsky would be so offended...

26/100.