Religulous
Lionsgate | Release Date: October 3, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
11
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
He's a bombs-away provocateur, and in Religulous, Maher's blasphemous detonation of all things holy and scriptural, he doesn't really pretend to play fair. He's like Lenny Bruce with an inquiring mind and a video camera. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
You may very well hate it, but at least you've been informed. Perhaps you could enjoy the material about other religions, and tune out when yours is being discussed. That's only human nature. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The results are often as surprising as they are funny. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
What he does do finally in this funny, refreshing movie is assert how unrestrained religiosity could guarantee the "end days" many of his subjects admit to looking forward to. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'Hara
It's a rare film that can simultaneously crack you up and send a chill down your spine. Worth seeing -- even for believers. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Though fashioned as popular entertainment with laughs, light moments, and mostly humorous segments, Religulous is as serious as a disapproving Jehovah about its mission to upend our rote allegiance to blind religious faith. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Those with a taste for irreverent humor and clear-eyed analysis will find it funny, enlightening and disturbing. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Maher's sense of humor deserts him in the end, though, when in an apocalyptic montage of fire and hate (bin Laden, Pat Robertson), he suggests all religions are equally bent on destruction of the Earth. It's fatuous to suggest that the Iraq war was launched because of religion or that belief in the Book of Revelation is the same as organizing terrorist attacks. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Stylistically, Religulous is very much like a Michael Moore documentary, in that most of the scenes have a comic structure, end with a punch line and are designed to make Maher-the-interviewer look sane and rational while his subject comes off as a complete fool. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Maher can be a smartass, but his attempts to apply reason to religion are more a challenge than a threat. Read full review
70
VarietyRobert Koehler
To the film's credit, Maher never engages in Michael Moore-style gotcha tactics, but rather asks questions that raise more questions, in the form of a Socratic dialogue. To believers expecting a blind hatchet job, this will prove both thought-provoking and a bit disarming; skeptics may be surprised (as Maher is) by the occasionally smart replies to his queries. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
As he delivered his climactic sermon in the Israeli desert, I murmured, "Amen, brother." Religulous is a religious experience. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Has a shocking anger and force. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Was Maher afraid he might muddy his clownish jape if he actually brought into the mix a learned theologian? Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's a fairly entertaining bash, with a travelogue vibe established by director Larry Charles ("Borat"). It’s also smug as all hell. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
While even believers can support Maher's skepticism, when he denounces the faithful in sweeping absolutes at film's end, he sounds as absolutely certain as those he has mocked for the previous 100 minutes. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
By focusing so narrowly on religious fundamentalists and bigots while ignoring any spiritual dimension to religion, the film is not only being disingenuous but limits its audience to non-believers. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The problem with the movie, whose title compresses "religious" and "ridiculous" into a single word, isn't that it milks more than one sacred cow but that it does so with minimal subtlety and intelligence. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Bill Maher's one-man stand-up attack on religious fundamentalism is a dog that has more bark than bite--a skeptical, secular-humanist hounding of the hypocrites, amusingly annotated with sarcastic subtitles and clips from cheesy biblical spectacles. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Much of Mr. Maher's film is extremely funny in a similarly irreverent, offhanded way. Some true believers -- at least those who have a sense of humor about their faith -- may even be amused. But most will not. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
For the most part Mr. Maher is an equal-opportunity denigrator, but it's worth noting that humor fails him when the subject is Muslim fundamentalism. It's hard to make light of what frightens us. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Maher makes Michael Moore look incredibly likable in comparison. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
A major disappointment because here, unlike on "Real Time," Maher aims for laughs instead of insight--and aims low. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
More rant than rollick, it's just ain't funny enough. Read full review
50
PremiereEric Kohn
The lack of insightful commentary keeps the spotlight focused on Maher. That's not restraint; it's a missed opportunity. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The bulk of Religulous is a passionate but misguided attempt by Maher to stimulate the 16 percent of the American population who deem themselves non-religious into standing up and being counted. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film has a habit of cutting away from interviews for Maher's commentary during the drive to the next location. You can see him trying to work the car for a laugh. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Maher's too smart to make a movie this dumb. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
His scattershot and ad hominem attacks against many different forms of religious hypocrisy don't add up to a coherent critique, and he's not qualified to provide one. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Though he claims to be a seeker, someone who "has to find out" why believers believe, Maher sets out not after answers but cheap laughs that preach, so to speak, to the converted. Read full review
30
Washington PostNeely Tucker
One of the rules of satire is that you can't mock things you don't understand, and Religulous starts developing fault lines when it becomes clear that Maher's view of religious faith is based on a sophomoric reading of the Scriptures and that he doesn't understand that some thoughtful people actually do believe in some sort of spiritual life. Read full review
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