56
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanHe'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.
- 80New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierWhat 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.
- 75USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThose with a taste for irreverent humor and clear-eyed analysis will find it funny, enlightening and disturbing.
- 75New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithMaher'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.
- 70VarietyRobert KoehlerVarietyRobert KoehlerTo 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.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttBy 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.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThe 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.
- 50Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanBill 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.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenMuch 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.
- 30SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirHis 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.