I went to the movies today with my friend David Dean. In one theater was FIREPROOF and the other theater was RELIGULOUS. Which one did we see?
RELIGULOUS.
Here are some thoughts.
There was no one in the theatre for FIREPROOF. They only time the theatre is packed for that is when churches buy a block of tickets and sell them to Christians and then they all flock to the movie together. Why is that? My friend Matt went with a church group and said it was so sad to see a group of 400 people laugh at jokes that only made sense to you if you were a believer. He did say they talked about porn but because it was a Christian movie did it without saying the word porn. Who knows, if you like Kirk, go see it.
As far as RELIGULOUS goes. I thought it was great. Bill Maher is a guy who is searching for answers. He does not claim to have the answers in fact he claims to not know what to believe so he travels the world talking to people about faith. He even put up a website called disbeliefnet.com (notice the XXXchurch add on the site). He says that it is easy to have faith if you are in jail but in the world today it is a luxury to not have faith.
I don’t get why Christians are calling to boycott RELIGULOUS and some of the same groups say we should flock to FIREPROOF? He makes fun of all religions in this movie because he is not a believer. Stuff we do, stuff the Mormon’s do, stuff the Scientologist do can sound crazy at times. You can get caught up on that or you can look at Bill as a guy like your neighbor or your co-worker or you boss that have doubts and questions. He mentions in the movie that 16% of people have no belief in God. This movie is from that perspective and he interviews people often times he is asking questions instead of providing answers.
The production on the film is great, the interviews look sharp and it will make you laugh. If you are a Christian you will be embarrassed at some times in the movie based on what people of our faith say and do. I love the truck driver in the movie.
Early on in the movie, Bill visits a Truck Stop and they are holding a church service. He interviews some of the truckers. One guy gets upset because Bill does not believe like he does and he storms out of the room. The other guy ( the one I like ) answers Bill’s questions. He shares about what Jesus has done in his life. He then asks Bill if he can pray for him and the scene ends with Bill being prayed for. I like that guy. Most of the other Christians portrayed in the movie….not so.
Bill reminded me of Donny Pauling and my many conversations I had with Donny prior to September 2006. Donny is intelligent. Donny was convinced God was not real but Donny kept coming by our booth, so that showed me that Donny really was not convinced…he was searching.
My two cents, Bill does not do a movie about this stuff unless like Donny, he too is searching.
Tomorrow, I will take the kids to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. No write up about that one.
Bonus – A crtique of RELIGULOUS that is featured on disbelief.net ……