‘Religulous’ | 3 stars
By ROBERT W. BUTLER
The Kansas City Star
It’s a given that Bill Maher and the makers of “Religulous” will be accused of making faith seem stupid. Especially on the eve of a presidential election.
Don’t get too mad at Maher.
Yeah, he’s snarky and condescending. But the believers he interviews for this film need no help to make faith seem stupid.
In this docu-comedy Maher and “Borat” director Larry Charles team up for a guerrilla raid on religion that employs many of the same bait-and-switch tactics from that Sacha Baron Cohen hit. Both films target the gullibility of just plain folks with a mixed bag of satiric humor and genuine discomfort.
Maher often has railed on his HBO show against what he sees as the insidious effects of religion, which he claims “sells an invisible product.” Faith “makes a virtue out of not thinking” and is “detrimental to the progress of humanity.” “Religulous” (say it “re-LIJ-you-lus”) gives Maher a feature-length platform from which to make his case.
He does so by crisscrossing the U.S. and venturing into the Middle East and Europe. He interviews an actor who portrays Jesus; U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas; and high-power, big-money evangelist Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, who flatly states that he is the incarnation of Jesus.
Maher also visits a church in a semi that caters to truckers, where his questions so anger one burly over-the-roader that he storms off in disgust. The other congregants stick around and, in an unexpectedly sweet moment, pray for the comic.
“Thank you for being Christ-like and not Christian,” Maher tells them.
Maher and his crew drop in on Ohio’s Creation Museum, which features life-size dioramas of children playing with dinosaurs (Maher can’t resist a “Flintstones” joke). Even weirder is the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Fla., where guests can go from a bloody re-enactment of Jesus’ flagellation and crucifixion to a musical number in which actors in robes and sandals hoof it to a catchy pop song.
There’s a passage examining the religious beliefs of the Founding Fathers (conventional Christians were in the minority, Maher reports). The musical score even gets into the act, accompanying footage of bearded Greek Orthodox priests with a ZZ Top tune and playing the Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere” behind the closing credits.
Maher also examines his own religious background. Raised as a Roman Catholic, it was only when his father broke with the church that the future comic learned that his mother was Jewish.
Those hoping for an even-handed examination of a touchy subject should keep looking. The film is one-sided, less a measured argument than a bunch of rants and barbed observations.
But it’s also very funny, which trumps everything else.
“Religulous” ends with a call for non-believers to assert themselves. Calling the irreligious “the great untapped minority,” Maher claims they could make up a greater voting bloc than African-Americans or Hispanics.
So you’ll know that he’s not just picking on Christianity, Maher also takes on Islam, Judaism and Scientology. There’s even an examination of Mormon underwear.
Eastern religions get a pass. Maybe in the sequel.
‘RELIGULOUS’ ★★★
Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Bill Maher
Rated: R for some language and sexual material
Running time: 1:41
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