Current mood:
amused
amusedI saw this movie on Monday in Pasadena at Laemmle Theatres.
Chances are, if you're going to go out of your way to see it (and you have to), you're probably already going to love it. I know I did! My cousin... not so much, but then again he didn't even like Bowfinger or Ong Bak, which clearly means he's the one with weird-ass tastes, not me.
The wiki entry is informative enough, so here's what I remember and / or care to write about:
Christianity -
- Jesusland
- Some dumbass Arkansas senator who misused words (like "literacy" instead of "literalism")
- Singer-turned-preacher who obviously got rich doing what he does and sees no disconnect between his wealth and the fact that Jesus is supposed to be for the poor
- Gay-to-straight guy
- The Spanish-speaking, self-proclaimed "Second Coming of Jesus" (Maher doesn't count "dubious descendant" as "reincarnation")
- Creation Museum, with Ken Ham saying there's a "conspiracy among scientists" to keep creationism down
Mormonism:
- Much of the craziness was already documented by South Park, but I didn't even know God lived on another planet!
- Also amusing was that they believe "dark skin was a curse, but through faith (or something) they can attain lighter skin"... here they showed Michael Jackson.
Islam:
- The violence we all think of when we think of Islam is not motivated by religion, it's "political." (my ass!)
- Muslim guy: "Oh, no, we do allow women here. They have a special corner."
- Also amusing was some Muslim guy's cell phone going off during an interview - to rock music, no less. "Damn this 21st century!" says Maher.
Judaism:
- There was a store with crazy-ass gadgets allowing Jews to do things otherwise forbidden on the Sabbath. Like dialing phones. The guy running the place says "the loopholes were there on purpose for emergencies."
The last 10 minutes of the movie is where Maher makes his points:
1) Why is religion bad? The religious right has a frightening control over government (recent example), these religious assholes can see a silver lining in, say, nuclear war (it's when Jesus is supposed to come back), and that because these religious assholes believe in "End Times," they won't care to improve the quality of life right now.
2) The non-religious should speak out more. At 16%, they surpass other minorities, but they don't even have government lobbies that get everything their groups want.
All in all, it's very similar to The God Who Wasn't There, but not quite as good IMO.Religulous has its points, but it's 90% "LOL they believe in this shit!?" and 10% "Okay, now here's the problem with all this." TGWWT makes its case throughout, and the people interviewed aren't nuts but people who know what they're talking about; Sam Harris made the point about the "silver lining of a mushroom cloud" very well. TGWWT and Religulous both made the point about how the story of Jesus had a lot in common with other religious tales (check out Osiris), but only TGWWT mentioned the Church's official stance regarding this - namely that Satan "counterfeited the story in advance." Heck, TGWWT even has a cool soundtrack which is still available for download.
Religulous does a few things I can't say I'm a fan of. First, there's the Family Guy-style cutaway scenes, though they may be wholly appropriate, and I realize they're for comedic effect. Second, according to Wikipedia, while filming the documentary, Maher used a fake title. This was dishonest in Ben Stein's Expelled, and it's dishonest here.
If TGWWT was a 5/5, I'd give Religulous a 4/5. Maher is a funny guy, but I liked TGWWTbetter, even if it wasn't (intentionally) funny. Plus Maher is still kind of an asshole for all his work for PETA.
On top of all this, I'm excited that I now know about a theater where I can see foreign and independent films; I was so impressed with the trailers, I regretted not having a pen and paper handy to jot down the titles! I'll have to keep an eye out for The First Basket and Let The Right One In. Often I'd watch At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, but I'd ask myself where the hell I'd get to see those films with "limited showing." Now I know.
Chances are, if you're going to go out of your way to see it (and you have to), you're probably already going to love it. I know I did! My cousin... not so much, but then again he didn't even like Bowfinger or Ong Bak, which clearly means he's the one with weird-ass tastes, not me.
The wiki entry is informative enough, so here's what I remember and / or care to write about:
Christianity -
- Jesusland
- Some dumbass Arkansas senator who misused words (like "literacy" instead of "literalism")
- Singer-turned-preacher who obviously got rich doing what he does and sees no disconnect between his wealth and the fact that Jesus is supposed to be for the poor
- Gay-to-straight guy
- The Spanish-speaking, self-proclaimed "Second Coming of Jesus" (Maher doesn't count "dubious descendant" as "reincarnation")
- Creation Museum, with Ken Ham saying there's a "conspiracy among scientists" to keep creationism down
Mormonism:
- Much of the craziness was already documented by South Park, but I didn't even know God lived on another planet!
- Also amusing was that they believe "dark skin was a curse, but through faith (or something) they can attain lighter skin"... here they showed Michael Jackson.
Islam:
- The violence we all think of when we think of Islam is not motivated by religion, it's "political." (my ass!)
- Muslim guy: "Oh, no, we do allow women here. They have a special corner."
- Also amusing was some Muslim guy's cell phone going off during an interview - to rock music, no less. "Damn this 21st century!" says Maher.
Judaism:
- There was a store with crazy-ass gadgets allowing Jews to do things otherwise forbidden on the Sabbath. Like dialing phones. The guy running the place says "the loopholes were there on purpose for emergencies."
The last 10 minutes of the movie is where Maher makes his points:
1) Why is religion bad? The religious right has a frightening control over government (recent example), these religious assholes can see a silver lining in, say, nuclear war (it's when Jesus is supposed to come back), and that because these religious assholes believe in "End Times," they won't care to improve the quality of life right now.
2) The non-religious should speak out more. At 16%, they surpass other minorities, but they don't even have government lobbies that get everything their groups want.
All in all, it's very similar to The God Who Wasn't There, but not quite as good IMO.Religulous has its points, but it's 90% "LOL they believe in this shit!?" and 10% "Okay, now here's the problem with all this." TGWWT makes its case throughout, and the people interviewed aren't nuts but people who know what they're talking about; Sam Harris made the point about the "silver lining of a mushroom cloud" very well. TGWWT and Religulous both made the point about how the story of Jesus had a lot in common with other religious tales (check out Osiris), but only TGWWT mentioned the Church's official stance regarding this - namely that Satan "counterfeited the story in advance." Heck, TGWWT even has a cool soundtrack which is still available for download.
Religulous does a few things I can't say I'm a fan of. First, there's the Family Guy-style cutaway scenes, though they may be wholly appropriate, and I realize they're for comedic effect. Second, according to Wikipedia, while filming the documentary, Maher used a fake title. This was dishonest in Ben Stein's Expelled, and it's dishonest here.
If TGWWT was a 5/5, I'd give Religulous a 4/5. Maher is a funny guy, but I liked TGWWTbetter, even if it wasn't (intentionally) funny. Plus Maher is still kind of an asshole for all his work for PETA.
On top of all this, I'm excited that I now know about a theater where I can see foreign and independent films; I was so impressed with the trailers, I regretted not having a pen and paper handy to jot down the titles! I'll have to keep an eye out for The First Basket and Let The Right One In. Often I'd watch At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, but I'd ask myself where the hell I'd get to see those films with "limited showing." Now I know.
