Directed by: Larry Charles Starring: Bill Maher

MPAA rating: R (for adult language, drug use)

Running time: 101 minutes Best suited for: Bill Maher fans

Least suited for: Bill Maher critics

Right up front: If you're deeply rooted in the conviction of your religious beliefs, stay away from

"Religulous." If you're religious and know anything about Bill Maher, you probably don't need that warning.

My advice: Don't read further. Quick, turn the page.

If you're a fan of Maher's (and I admit that I am), or otherwise curious or somehow uncertain about The Big Guy Upstairs, then you can expect Maher's typically irreverent, quirky commentary on our sometimes irrational behavior.

Intentionally or not, this is acerbic stuff. And yet it makes for some disturbingly funny moments.

This isn't a stand-up film, as was "Bill Maher: I'm Swiss" (2005). In "Religulous," Maher trots the world searching for answers from various religious leaders, pundits and crusaders. He seems superficially curious, open to debate—but let's face it, the man does have an agenda. Don't mistake the films' quasidocumentary approach for a documentary film. And while I found "Religulous" more like "Super Size Me" than "Fahrenheit 9/11" in terms of fair play, just understand that the film isn't likely to settle for compromise.

"Religulous" is funny in the same way "Borat" was supposed to be funny. The only difference: "Borat" was a con, a puton, a cinematic forgery; "Religulous" is not. It's the real thing. The folks that Bill Maher interviews are not planted or tricked into silly discourse. These people and their beliefs, their rhetoric, are absolutely genuine.

And while I admit that Maher goes out of his way to hone in on the lunatic fringe, the numbers fitting that description seem so large that the film is not wanting for material.

Mind you, it's not God whom Maher disputes (his assertion being that nobody really knows for sure). Rather, Maher questions those who claim they know exactly who God is, or what God wants or why God should favor one religion over another. And the people Maher interviews, for the most part, are adamant in their belief that God wants it this way, but absolutely no other. (And getting it wrong is a onewayticket to you know where.)

Zealots and fundamentalists abound in "Religulous" (a play on the word ridiculous, one would intuit). In its own way, the film is as sad as it is funny; nonetheless I found it a remarkable study in human nature.

"Religulous" illuminates our persistence to depict our creator as somebody just like us, with all the same frailties, biases, jealousies and petty hang-ups. But according to Maher, it's not God who made us in his own image and likeness, it's the other way around.