It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I loved this movie with Bill Maher. I really appreciated that he talked to Jewish, Muslim and Christian people. And we saw many different opinions and answers when most if not all of these religious people should be in agreement if they believe in their "god". I though the movie was hilarious with hearing the same circular reasoning from all the different religious people and the same logical fallacies that they all were committing. As well I thought it was deep that both the Catholic and Mormon church kicked them off of the premises, but it also shows how they do not want to be challenged with their beliefs and only stay in their own confirmation bias. All in all, this movie was great all of the jokes Bill Maher said had me in tears and the movie honestly helped a lot for me.

This starts out as any typical documentary where Bill Maher presents that he is on a journey to find the truth about the validity or stupidity of religion. By claiming agnosticism (when clearly he is not) Maher pretends to be fair by acting like he is un-biasedly going to explore religion, saying "I have to find out." Shortly afterward one can clearly see that this is purely a Bill Maher ego trip and a Borat-style type of mockumentary. He doesn't really bring any debate, discussion of issues, or scrutiny to the table. Instead he just resorts to a religious joke fest which is all very entertaining and humorous, but then the real joke is calling this an intellectual documentary on the criticism of religion.To prove his points he finds only the most extreme or corrupt religious fanatics that are even considered nutcases in their own respective religious communities. He especially loves throwing loaded questions to people who are unlearned in their religion, or others who have skewed off-base and non-canon ideas within their own beliefs. He questions laymen and doesn't once acknowledge the experts or learned crowd in religion.Some of his subjects include pastors who don't even know what their bible says, a Jew who doesn't believe Israel is currently a nation who supports that the holocaust was from God, gay Muslims, a weed smoking church, and a Jewish inventor that creates contraptions to avoid Sabbath laws. These people are all extremely obscure and on the outer fringes of these religious groups.At one point Maher even tries to argue that the existence of the historical man Jesus was up for debate. I don't know if he actually believes this or if he was just trying to fluster the interviewee and make him falter (I think the latter). But if he does actually believe this he would be laughed out academia by nearly every scholar, theist and atheist alike.Bill does make many valid criticisms of religions but the problem is he leaves no room for any real intellectual rebuttal. He is mostly catching people off-guard and asking loaded questions. He had some good points like on the U.S. not being founded as a Christian nation, or the absurd idea that "Christianity is American." But there were other claimed "facts" completely false like his information on the Horus/Jesus debate or pulling despicable Biblical stories and not really addressing what those passages were actually about. Maher also asserts that all religion is violent, when in fact just as much or more violence has been done in the name of no religion. He eventually moves on to other religions, but really never far from Judaism based ones which really doesn't touch on most of the world.This is without a doubt a very funny piece (unless you are extremely offended by it all), but it would be completely inaccurate to call it an intellectual one. It's just Bill Maher being Bill Maher. Even to the point of him bringing up other irrelevant issues like his views on the environment and nuclear applications. He didn't actually do extensive research, he's mostly just shooting from the hip and catching dumb people off-guard. The makers even cut the scenes cleverly in the interviews (weird pauses, strange faces) for extra awkwardness and comedy.The only thing this "documentary" really proved was that there are a lot of people that believe strange things some of them being very stupid. Most people watching this already knew that beforehand. At one point Maher says: "Religion is arrogant certitude," which ironically also perfectly describes himself.

Doesn't matter whether you have religions or not, you should watch this movie, it talks about how people see in religions and how much most of people understand religions, and what it brings to people in the end. This movie will show you the other side of religion which most people can not usually see. In a very funny way, well because of Bill Maher, so you can imaging the comedy impact inside of this movie. There are a lots of interviewed and smart talks in this movie, with religious people, the people work for religions, sincerest, workers, public speech man, and so on. You will have a chance to see what all of these people have to say about what the believes, its a very smart movie with a good point. It's opened my eyes, although I am kind of neutral at this point. This movie had changed some of my opinions of the view about religions, I understand it's maybe not everybody's thing, but worth to give it a try.

For Christ's sake! Reading through some reviews here, it seems some people just don't get that even though the subject is serious, Bill Maher is a COMEDIAN. So, this is not intended to be a serious documentary, but a comedy that looks like a documentary. People who don't like this movie for its humor (because it supposedly makes fun of religious people) confirm exactly what Maher tries to say about religions and how they manipulate the minds. We shouldn't laugh about religion, because God has no humor, right? (Read the Bible and you'll know what I'm talking about.)A serious documentary, though, would come to the same conclusion as Maher, since it just can't be denied that religious people believe in FANTASY. It's grotesque, for example, that Christians ridicule the doctrines of "religions" like Scientology for being absurd, while they themselves believe in absurd things like a talking serpent or a God that has a son who is himself! Exactly this is what Maher, with humor, is trying to say: all religions teach NONSENSE.Who can deny that?How can people from one religion look at other people, from different religions, with disdain, if all religious people, no matter from which religion, equally believe in fantasy? Religions combat each other, because, as we all know, only one religion can be the true one. And here lies the biggest problem with religions, which Maher very well exposes: they are dangerous because they separate people from each other and make them hate and FIGHT, even though they think they preach "love".This is pure madness!And then there are those Christians who criticize Maher for showing Christians they say are no good examples of good Christians (literate, compassionate, etc.), which means THEY see themselves as better representatives of good Christianity. Really? They think they represent Christianity better, but nevertheless and equally believe that homosexuality is sin, the woman was made out of a rib, in devil, hell, end of the world, etc., etc., etc. So, where is the difference? Their "intelligence" doesn't seem to make them different from the illiterate Christians.Comedy or serious documentary, at the end the message would have been the same. That's why this movie is very important and everybody should see it, despite being a comedy, which was the reason I liked it so much.Note: if you want to understand, but really on the highest possible level, why religions are nonsense, read "Ethics" by Baruch Spinoza and FREE yourself forever from all religious nonsense!