PREMIERE'S REVIEW (posted 10/3/08)

The closing minutes of Religulous, an anti-religion documentary directed by Borat's Larry Charles featuring the discursive thoughts of Bill Maher, deliver a precise, shrewdly calculated argument against the prevalence of faith in modern times. Maher, briefly curbing his cynicism and replacing it with rage, explains that the constant talk about the End of Days has given rise to a self-fulfilling prophesy. With a large portion of the world believing in a vengeful god, or gods, or some kind of deistic power that will strike them down if bad stuff happens, well, bad stuff starts to happen — but not because some higher power got pissed. Instead, the gaps reserved for supernatural punishment get filled with human corruption.

Maher's poignant diatribe is so spot-on that it makes you wish he had put it out there sooner. Instead, most of Religulous feels unstructured, lingering through a series of sophomoric conversation between Maher and a wide range of religious fundamentalists. Naturally, he tears them down and roasts them over a fire of snarky one-liners while Charles lets the camera linger on their squirming discomfort. Fortunately, Maher has an appealing enough presence that the movie ceaselessly entertains, but only as far as his charisma will take it. There's hardly any cogent narrative arc, and it's often digressive. Maher generally focuses on exposing the inanities of Christianity, but at one point he abruptly switches gears and goes after the Jews. Not once, however, does the comedian seem to bother with anyone really qualified to give him educated answers. Like Heckler, Jamie Kennedy's inane tirade against film critics, Religulous just focuses on the easy targets.

Still, it's engaging and often quite fun to sympathize with Maher's agenda. He discusses his Catholic youth in the presence of his hilariously candid mother, who freely admits the pointlessness of their earlier churchgoing habits. That's probably the only entirely coherent moment in the film, but it's key to understanding the repeated cutaways to Maher's looks of bemusement when conversing with Rapture-fearing politicians and common men alike.

The real issue with Religulous is that Charles, whose work on Borat basically allowed Sacha Baron Cohen to carry the show, doesn't do much with the material. When Maher visits a Holy Land theme park, replete with a gory reenactment of the crucifixion, Maher engages in a delightful exchange with a man in a Jesus outfit. But we don't get any elaborate thoughts on the implications of a money-grubbing tourist attraction built around supposedly profound notions of spirituality and faith. The lack of insightful commentary keeps the spotlight focused on Maher. That's not restraint; it's a missed opportunity.

— Eric Kohn