Bill Maher's "Religulous" Out Of Oscar Contention

Bill Maher's documentary exploring religion, "Religulous," is out of Oscar contention after being left out of the final 15 list released by the Academy in the Best Documentary category.

Other notable snubs: "Dear Zachary," "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" and "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired."

Instead, the final 15 are:

"At the Death House Door"
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
"Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"Fuel"
"The Garden"
"Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts"
"I.O.U.S.A."
"In a Dream"
"Made in America"
"Man on Wire"
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell"
"Standard Operating Procedure"
"They Killed Sister Dorothy"
"Trouble the Water"

The film was directed by Larry Charles and has made almost $13 million on a budget of just $2.5 million since its October 1 release.

Comments

[memaR]

05:01 AM on 11/20/2008

Bigger Stronger Faster* Directed by Christopher Bell should have been on the Oscar list. It was critically acclaimed, won awards, and something should be said about the features these docs go up against. BSF* for instance, opened lagainst Sex In The City, Indiana Jones, Ironman to name a few. The movie ranked 3rd as greatest and highest reviewed behind, Man On Wire. This no way just a documentary about steroids, it was a complete look at America's obsessoion to be the best and win at all costs. It attacked such issues as the use of adderal in young kids to pass tests, Senator who had no knowledge of what the drinking/smoking age let alone the rules on steroids, our military and what they'll do to win, the vit. industry, muscians using beta blockers to calm down. All sorts of performance enhancements where explored. The DVD sales rank high, it only opended in 26 theaters. This movie should have been considered, everyone should see it, It's gotten rave reviews on every movie critic website. You'll never look at performance enhancements the same way again. This was a straight look right down the middle on the subject, and the Director took no sides. This movie is about a family who grapples with the use of performance enhancements in their own lives. It's been said that the human family factor was compeling, and equalled to a Shakespearean dinner scene. Someone needs to take another look at this for an Oscar.

[rektruax]

07:07 AM on 11/20/2008

Totally agree! I thought his film was entirely honest and thought provoking.

[jakkib]

06:49 PM on 11/19/2008

I thought this movie was excellent. I'm a big fan of Bill Maher. Watch his standup "The Decider"that's also hysterical. This was defiantely a funny movie, and interesting seeing him travel all over the world and ask people questions about their beliefs. However I just don't think it was Oscar material. I do belive that Hollywood in general, doesn't like this kind of stuff though. Anyway aren't their more important things to be talking about instead of who might be a contender for an Oscar?

[pioneer8]

04:03 PM on 11/19/2008

Too bad. He was brave to tackle this subject. I am appreciative and will purchase it for my family. I thought it was excellent.

[donorman]

02:30 PM on 11/19/2008

I'm sure the "razzies" won't forget ya Bill.

[PaxMundis]

01:00 PM on 11/19/2008

I thought the movie was like pretty much everything else by Bill Maher - momentarily provocative but ultimately shallow. Saying it deserved an Oscar is like saying that "New Rules" deserved a Pulitzer.

I find it troubling that people who claim to be free-thinkers and unbiased are, without checking the facts, condemning the Academy as overly "Hollywood" for snubbing Maher. Documentarians pick the Documentary nominees, and the ones they have nominated are among some of the best-reviewed movies of the year. Most documentaries not by celebrities have little chance at major distribution and if being nominated gets them seen by more people, all the better. Many of them deal with very serious subjects. So spare me your "Religulous was too provacative/true/daring for the Academy." It wasn't, by a long shot.

[Eric8869]

01:48 PM on 11/19/2008

Bill Maher is a unique politically incorrect voice in Hollywood and a free speech martyr.

Get over yourself

[PaxMundis]

04:25 PM on 11/19/2008

GIve me a break. That's an insult to real martyrs who have been jailed or killed for what they've said. Maher just lost a TV show.

[TrishR]

02:29 PM on 11/19/2008

Perhpas the reason Religulous appears shallow is because the subject matter is not nearly as deep as most Americans would like to believe...

[PaxMundis]

04:24 PM on 11/19/2008

No, it's the movie that's shallow. Maher shows no comprehension of geopolitical issues other than "it's religion's fault." If religion disappeared overnight, there would still be a lot of angry people in the hot spots of the world.

[Ireply]

11:04 AM on 11/19/2008

The only antidote to the church problem [intolerance of religious people which would not be a problem if they did not insist on pushing their judgment on the rest of us and forcing government and social policy on us) is for people like us to band together and stand up for our rights. Incredibly intelligent, civilized people such as Sam Harris, refute the 'god' argument with great beauty. We need to find unity and refuse to take this nonsense. Since the time of Bertrand Russell, Harris is the only person who is able to put aside his gut feelings and apply dispassionate reasoning to the religion problem. Take a look at the beautiful words of Russell in the article "an outline of intellectual rubbish". This was written in 1943!
http://www.solstice.us/russell/intellectual_rubbish.html
It was so painful to see that Obama and McCain sit down with Rick Warren and be forced to answer the most meaningless questions I have ever heard. Sad when our intelligence, our society, our government is subjected to meaningless belief.

[vjthedj]

11:56 PM on 11/18/2008

This movie ended up being more funny. What wasn't funny is what content people truly believe, and how many of them are out there.

[Mort]

11:44 PM on 11/18/2008

For someone who doesn't like evangelicals, Maher is acting awfully.... evangelical!

[TrishR]

02:59 AM on 11/19/2008

When is the last time you saw an evangelist handing the microphone to anyone who disagrees with him/her?

[PaxMundis]

01:01 PM on 11/19/2008

"When is the last time you saw an evangelist handing the microphone to anyone who disagrees with him/her?"

Sure, Maher gives them the microphone, but only long enough to ridicule them with choppy editing or sarcastic subtitles.

[hdohighdesertobserver]

06:04 PM on 11/19/2008

One can be fervid without having a fever; rabid without having rabies; evangelical without believing in space ghosts.

Go, Bill.

[radmul]

11:35 PM on 11/18/2008

While I found the movie laugh out loud funny it was rather mediocre from a technical standpoint.

[klandish]

11:34 PM on 11/18/2008

It's the most visionary and important Documentary I've seen in a while. Required viewing.

[PaxMundis]

01:02 PM on 11/19/2008

"It's the most visionary and important Documentary I've seen in a while. Required viewing."

Then you need to see more documentaries, and not just those by Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock.

[Eric8869]

01:49 PM on 11/19/2008

Spurlock and Moore's documentaries are good too

[mredder4]

10:56 PM on 11/18/2008

Bill Maher is my agnostic hero. He's not claiming to have the answers, or worse, The Answer. He's not saying "This is" or "Believe this". He points out that no one can know the mind of God, and anyone who conceives of God as someone who's mind man can know obviously doesn't understand the concept of God. He's trying to show the world that Christianity is based on a book of fables and stories from a time before written recorded knowledge was prevalent, much less commonplace, plus some over-inflated stories about one good man's life.

I don't know what happens after we die. I fall into the 16% of Americans who get no representation because our beliefs are so "outside of the mainstream". But more importantly, I don't CLAIM to know. I don't profess to have an answer to an unanswerable question: what happens when humans die?

I question everything that I can, because that is what my mind is for, whether I got it from God or evolution. I'd like to think that if God exists and even if I spend my life not believing in him that I'll be made aware of that when I die, and not as a precursor to an eternity in Hell as spiteful punishment.

I can't imagine a greater God than one who would let his creations not believe in him.

[Hirnlego]

12:08 AM on 11/19/2008

"I can't imagine a greater God than one who would let his creations not believe in him."
I don't think a great God would even consider praise for him/her/it/them/whatever to be important. I consider it like Maher a petty human emotion. Something that created all needs praise? Please.

I'm more like Carlin, saying that any decent deity should provide everyone a house and good meal of food every day. God is like a bad father, not showing up when he is needed. Allows way too much suffering to be considered good by my standards.

[Mort]

01:14 AM on 11/19/2008

Do you have kids? If you gave them everything they ever wanted, would they learn anything?

[TrishR]

02:33 PM on 11/19/2008

The thing about the biblical god that boggles my mind the most is that the creator of everything, who wants the best for his flock, left them in the dark about the existence of germs & their role in disease. Instead, for thousands of years, sick people were believed to be receiving their just punishment for sin. Conversely, people whose physical health was good were allowed to believe that good health was a reward for/demonstration of their virtue.

[americancolonyinhell]

10:55 PM on 11/18/2008

bill maher is as middlebrow as they come. Plus, he's just not funny. I've never heard him say a damned thing that was truly funny.

[Hirnlego]

11:46 PM on 11/18/2008

Maybe you don't really have a funny bone

[PaxMundis]

01:03 PM on 11/19/2008

No, he's pretty middlebrow. Many smart people are agnostic, but that doesn't mean that most agnostics are smart. Religulous never got beyond the surface of the central question.

[chaos4700]

10:32 PM on 11/18/2008

I wasn't very impressed by Maher's film. It's not really much of a documentary as far as academic standards go. Honestly, if you watch it with a critical eye you can even see rather painfully where Maher's bias (or maybe just those of the other producers of the film) lie. Frankly, as an athiest, I was embarrassed and disappointed by Religulous.

[wadenelson1]

10:30 PM on 11/18/2008

Hey Bill. Go Make fun of Islam. I dare ya'. ;)

[klandish]

11:31 PM on 11/18/2008

He did in his movie. Tragi-comedy.

[radmul]

11:37 PM on 11/18/2008

He does, try seeing the film.

[Moderate Man805]

10:28 PM on 11/18/2008

Bill is a funny guy, but what isn't funny is that Maher thinks the entire universe was an accident. Regardless of your religious beliefs or non-religious beliefs, Maher's notion that there is not "something" greater than ourselves is even more ridiculous than the religions he trashes

[mredder4]

10:43 PM on 11/18/2008

You obviously didn't see the movie. Maher is very VERY clear on his point that his argument is "I don't know". More importantly, his argument is "I don't know, you don't know (no matter how hard you claim to), and that essentially, no one can know." His premise is straightforward, his logic is sound, and his argument is absolutely more believable and provable than "God picked a woman, impregnated her, and her son/Him lived, died, and lived again, as penance for mankind's sins."

Have you never looked at the logic of Christianity? Jesus' life implies that God made a mistake, one that needed to be corrected in a very circuitous way. God, "all-powerful" God, couldn't just fix man. He had to come and do it in human form?

Is someone a child, to believe that fairy tale? Is someone completely and totally gullible to believe a group of men who say "We know what God thinks, what God says, what God intends"?

Religion is for children. Frightened, scared, too-limited-to-want-to-deal-with-the-hard-truths-of-life children.

[TrishR]

10:55 PM on 11/18/2008

Speaking of Christianity & logic - anyone who has ever done laundry knows that blood does not clease anything.

[Hirnlego]

11:47 PM on 11/18/2008

Pressed "favorite"