religulous

also: we watched religulous the night before that. it had some ok-funny stuff where bill maher interviews crazy religious people (like larry charles' other film borat but nowhere near as sharp), but a lot of it was absurdly serious and somber. i think there is a specious but interesting argument for religion being the root of many of the world's ills, and i think christopher hitchens or richard dawkins could make a compelling movie with that argument. but bill maher seems to not know what he's talking about. he grasps at some middle school-level anti-christian arguments (for example, that jesus never physically existed, or that the bible contradicts itself) and finally at the end, he seems to come up with a main point to hammer home - that most religious people believe in the imminent end of the world, and therefore don't give a shit about the environment - which is clearly absurd. the supersimplifying of all of human history into this one good-evil dichotomy reminded me of the worst reasoning in ben stein’s expelled but taken to an even more ludicrous extent (even if i agree with maher more than stein).

even the high points of the film - bill maher patronizingly but amusingly interviewing the deluded/faithful - are largely ruined by constant cuts to maher back in the van talking shit about the people he just interviewed (like "man, wasn't that guy an idiot? here's the point i forgot to make when i was talking to him and now he can’t respond."). it comes across as really petty and low.

also, when he interviews that crazy latin-american guy who says he's jesus returned, they keep cutting to clips of scarface (get it? cause he's latin-american?) and when they talk to ostentatious black preacher jermiah cummings they cut to footage of a black pimp. yuck.