Count Me Officially Not a Fan of Bill Maher

[dreams_of_wings]

This evening, after hearing some rave reviews of it from two people I very much like and respect, Tish and I went with in_parentheses and spooky_thing to see Bill Maher's film Religulous. And it would not be going too far to say that I hated it

Comments

[hawver]

I saw some clips of the movie and was pretty revolted. I can appreciate the anger that atheists when they consider the concept of people believing in god, but talking down to people and acting like a dick is no way to get your point across.

[lightcastle]

wow.
I was vaguely intrigued at seeing the film, but that's pretty off-putting.

[temvald]

We saw Bill Maher on the Daily Show a few weeks ago, and had pretty much the same reaction just from the interview. I'll admit that I was hoping that he just went over the top on the show, and that the movie was somewhat more evenhanded. I guess not.

[miss_chance]

You validate every impression I got from the preview. :( I thought I would be deeply offended by the film, for pretty much all the reasons you state, though I hadn't articulated them as well in my head. I just thought: that movie looks mean.

I also thought it was remarkably poor timing. It's one thing to randomly come out with a mean, cruel movie mocking people and their deepest beliefs, it's another to mock the concept of religion a couple weeks before a presidential election. A large and frightened part of our country is scared about their retirement funds on one side and think that maybe, just maybe, the dems might have a better idea how to save them, and terrified on the other side that the dems are godless communists who will take their bibles away from them.

I was raised by a staunch atheist, and self-identify as atheistic buddhist, but from what I could tell from the preview this film most certainly goes against everything I believe in.

[bex77]

Phew. I thought it was just me.
I get my elderly parents to try seeing a movie in the theater about once a year. I pre-screened "Mamma Mia!" and decided it was worth a try. The entire outing was nearly scuttled by the trailed for Bill Maher's mess. My dad is a retired UCC minister, and they're the epitome of "church people" with broader minds, but that preview made me want to crawl under my chair as they gave me the "you brought us out to have to watch this?!" looks.
Sorry you had to endure it for much longer!