Rating: 
Organized Religion is a very easy target for ridicule, it consists of a group of individuals each keeping the other in check over a list of doctrines and rituals that have no intellectual authority of their own, but which much like a child’s game of make-believe, insist upon the mutual imagination of one’s playmate. It becomes all the more concerning when children are raised with the belief that these activities and beliefs are more than just cultural curiosities, but are in fact steadfast conclusions about your very being in the world that you cannot escape nor challenge. This pursuit to, as Kirk Cameron says in a choice clip, circumnavigate the intellect, is the core problem for atheist crusaders like Bill Maher and Larry Charles, the creators of Religulous, who try everything in their power to persuade the faithful to account for inconsistencies in their reasoning. But not even theme park Jesus was having any of that.
Focusing on the three biggie religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) this thinly veiled stand-up routine of a documentary goes for the laugh at the expense of the lesson virtually every time. The fringe faiths of Mormonism and Scientology are kicked around as well so as to add to the bounty of foolish ideas proposed under the assumption of a higher being. For Maher and Charles, it seems the stranger the better, and while they claim to have a fourteen hour cut of the film which perhaps nuances the debate, this lean and mean ninety minute version is as pensive as a South Park episode. I say this as a fan of Maher’s HBO show and of the open dialogue he affords about all topics, including religion, but with this film he has done a great disservice to the atheist argument. The believers who feel belittled by someone with big ideas about what is logical will feel more the same, the continual undercutting of what they say in this film with cheap jokes, gag reels, subtitles, does nothing but make a farce of any kind of debate.
The film begins with Maher discussing his religious childhood and using it as a platform for discussing dissenting views, trying weakly I may add, to ingratiate himself with the likes of the average person; instead he inevitably comes off looking as a Borat of the West Coast, waiting for an opportunity to insert a punch line as the interviewee comes off as someone more willing to debate than he. It was as if Larry Charles told Maher to behave more like Borat in his interviewing techniques, with cringe worthy remarks like the one to the ExChange representative, a former gay man who converted to being straight for his religious cause: “so you were gay, but now are straight and married a former lesbian and have three kids, of which the jury is still out on them”. These kind of cheap jabs give reprehensible people like those at ExChange the perceived moral high ground because for five or so minutes they are ritualistically victimized with unnecessary jokes.
That said, I did laugh, there was enough funny material in the film to make me recommend it as a comedy but unfortunately it is at the expense of deepening the trench between believers and non-believers. In the film he does interview some scientific-minded individuals, who of course are not challenged with comic barbs but should just as well; however, the clips of the neurologist or astronomer were fleeting, and barely sticking to any kind of factual evidence but used as a segue way to the next object of ridicule. Occasionally, as if by accident, the film does hit a nerve and attempts to shake up the foundations of religion, when for example the myth of Jesus is shown to be one told long before he was born (granted all to the music of Walk Like an Egyptian). But before this sort of information can be fully appreciated we are on to the next reincarnation of Jesus who dresses like a pimp and has a twinkle in his eye. More a freakshow than an actual exposé into the issues, Religulous resoundingly preaches to the choir.