I'll be honest: I enjoyed this film because I'm totally on Bill Maher's side. He's preaching to the converted, and I'm one of the them. Maher doesn't dig very deep and doesn't raise ideas that any good atheist hasn't already pondered, but in such a Christian-soaked culture it's nice to have our own crusaders, no matter how ineffective. Maher's schtick is very entertaining, if you don't mind his occasionally smug and dismissive demeanor. Some of the quick insert gags are a little stupid, though.

"Employs a debilitating brand of smug disingenuousness, feigning interest in discussion while arrogantly and speciously preaching in the very same manner that its subjects are ridiculed for." - Nick Schager

Maher is so condescending he will never be taken seriously, but the man hates him some religion and its pretty damned funny.

Certainly funny, but he handles the issue of religion like a joke, rather than a serious issue. This cannot claim to be a documentary. It is however, very funny.

Your college roommate thought this movie was really smart.

It's an impressively funny documentary that does manage to get across a lot of good points, and Maher excels when it comes to tripping up people's faith-based, evidence-lacking beliefs, but the final message of 'us vs them' is a little too childish and not particularly helpful. While religion is indubitably dangerous and he's right that doubt is the way forward, he completely neglects the notion that his doubt is never doubted, making him come across as slightly disingenuous and hypocritical.

God it was good seeing Maher take the piss out of some of those religious nut jobs.Thank Christ he made so many of them look so ridiculously stupid.Hell yeah!

The hypocrisy and blind, nonsensical faith found in religion seems like it would make for a great documentary but Maher would rather spend 90 minutes cutting off those he interviews or openly mocking them while making sure he's on camera as much as possible. Ego, anyone? I'm not a huge fan of Michael Moore but he knows how to make a thought-provoking documentary - Maher should take notes.

It was funny in some parts, but Maher was/is a complete ass. It's somewhat imformative if you can look past the biases. this movie should be taken very lightly.

This movie doesn't seriously explore how religion affects politics; it's just a snide attack on religious belief.

Not funny enough to be a comedy, not factual enough to be a documentary but at least he's out there raising these issues

I like Maher and I agree with his views, but was a bit disappointed at the lack of nuance. However, it's clear this is more of a war cry/wake-up call than a "documentary" and it works as such even if I doubt it really wins over any new people to the "cause".

No one is expecting much beyond Bill Maher slamming organized religion for an hour and a half, so most people will be satisfied. The topic is broad and so are the assertions, with Maher more concerned with his smug enlightenment than really selling the religious on his view of the world. More effort is placed on the closing assertion that the religious shouldn't be allowed in roles of responsibility, while trying to make them look as scary as possible complete with stock footage of nukes.

Witty, clever, well-directed and thought provoking. Do we really need religion? Does it do us any good? Important questions and interesting answers.

So religion allows the stupid to avoid thinking and the powerful to manipulate; the problem is this never gets past the obvious and onto more interesting issues. Maher enjoys his sarcastic prodding too much and rather than opening subjects up with humour he stupidly shuts them down. There are some funny moments, but Maher's self-sabotage and the muddled structure frustrates too much for this atheist.

I hate every christian, every muslim, every believer of any religion. But I'm not going to say it's a great movie when it's not. You don't get a free pass Bill Maher.

Religulous is unlikely to be an eye-opening experience for those of us siding with Maher's point of view. That's fine; I wasn't expecting it to be. I was expecting the film to turn out both sharper and funnier than it did, however--there was really no pay-off to any of Maher's prodding, and it wasn't nearly fast-paced enough to make up for it. Didn't think Maher came off as particularly likeable or sympathetic in this. Kind of dull in more ways than one.

Maher is an avowed atheist and fiercely committed to his view that religion is the cause of a disproportionate amount of the world's ills. He takes his act on the road, journeying to different locales with some sort of religious connection to engage in debate. It's too bad he didn't recruit a documentarian to capture it. Instead Charles can't help but try to goose the material with old film clips and other dopey asides, completely undercutting the worthwhile material.

I'm not religious, but Mr Maher asks some quite unoriginal questions about the nature of religion and God, stuff I've heard in the playground at times. If you love to see Christians roasted on their beliefs, watch this docu, I personally found it irritating and very one sided, some parts about USA history was interesting though, Bill is an annoying cock who's a bit thick and likes the sound of himself a bit much for my liking, could've been great, but for me it was granny pants.

thought provoking

this is pretty good...for god to pee on