I saw Bill Maher’s Religulous last night. From what it looked like in the theater, you either had a great time or you were violently offended during the entire movie. I had a great time.

Bill Maher does a great job of keeping the comedy light, but at the same time maintaining a serious enough atmosphere when interviewing people of different religions about their beliefs. The intent of the movie is to ask the extremely devout some very simple questions about some of the hypocrisies, irrationalities, and fallacies of most judeo-christian and islamic religions. Specifically, Maher targets those who literally believe the Bible or Qur’an word-for-word, especially those who hold a seat of power, such as a US Senator or Baptist and Islamic priests. On the sidelines, Maher takes some rather hilarious pot-shots at scientology, the Mormon faith, and other kooky religions in the world, such as one in Amsterdam that worships the indulgence of marijuana. (No, it isn’t Rastifarianism).

Overall, I’d say the first half of the movie is great. But, toward the end it gets a bit preachy, and if you aren’t open-minded enough to handle some pretty serious religion bashing then you may not enjoy it as much as I did. A major gripe that my wife had was that it didn’t cover other major religions like Buddhism or Hinduism, but then again this was intended for an American audience as opposed to an international release. Give it a shot!