Bill Maher: But I'm Not Wrong (2010)

the audience applauded

I wanted to but couldn't!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Yes you are! (<---All caps) laughing out loud (for some stupid reason the rules make me spell it out) and stupid too, it was hard to look past the blatantly obvious u-n-intelligence of the comedian After looking past that I laughed at one or two minor things the majority of his act was just plain bombing and it made me wonder how much he paid the live audience to laugh at all his stuff that wasn't funny. I also tried not to get annoyed by the stupid attacks on all the religions which to me has no place in comedy there just is not anything funny about slamming peoples believe systems no matter what you think of them. And to add to that he insults the very Country that gives him the freedom to do his comedy America and the great Republican System that it is build on, thank God we don't have Democratic System (mob rule straight quote from Thomas Jefferson) yet like this guy wants.For some reason they removed this review from Netflix, I had about 10 different people look it over and no one saw anything wrong with it.Really they don't allow you to put all caps where they belong, why is highlighting a certain set of words to express them better now considered shouting come on, not everyone on the internet is too stupid to use this right. You should at least allow them upon review approval.

Bill Maher is an acquired taste. He is an irreverent commentator on the topics that on the top of the news headlines. Comparing him to George Carlin does not even come close. Both men had a different style of delivery. The late George Carlin took an acerbic look at things with his unique way of going past the hype and the b.s. in our daily lives. Bill Maher, on the other hand, is a political incorrect person that makes no bones about calling things as he sees them. Mr. Maher does not go as deep as Mr. Carlin in his appearances.This particular show was taped in front of a live audience in Raleigh, N.C., a place one would never imagine he would receive the reaction from the public one sees in the show. Mr. Maher is an irreverent observer with a distinct delivery that spares no one from his rantings. Make no mistake, one knows what side is he on. He lashes against the Republicans and conservatives with relish. His special target is Sarah Palin, whom he calls a bimbo.Mr. Maher proceeds to enlighten his audience about different rumors that have become popular about the actual president of the United States that has circulated since his election in the internet and other conservative media. In fact, the comedian goes into great lengths to explain how the myth about a man that has been thrashed because he is just plain different.When he asks the audience indulgence when it comes to talk about religion, a subject that was the basis for his "Religulous", he warns his audience to indulge him because he is only going to spend about ten minutes on the subject, something that he complies with in his funny take on organized religion.The show was directed by John Moffet, and it is based on the material Mr. Maher wrote. Watching the material some time after this presentation renders some of the material a bit dated, but it is still a good opportunity to have a few laughs listening to his comments.

Many times during this show Bill Maher says "it's not a rally" as a sort of "quiet down" to the crowd who are responding to him hitting out at Republicans, Bush, Palin or some other topic that serves to excite his fans. Whether he is right or not is up for debate but certainly he is helped by a friendly crowd because, as he observes, all he has to do is crack an old Sarah Palin joke and they roar for a good minute. I say he is helped because for a good chunk of this show there is material that those same people will have seen on Real Time, so their laughter helps him carry over the familiarity of the material and perhaps, like Real Time, a friendly crowd helps the viewer at home get into it a bit more.Personally I stopped watching Real Time on the last season break because I just found that 9 times out of 10 it was far from the discussion programme that I found it to be when I started watching it. However Bill Maher does work better on a stage where he doesn't have to pretend to listen to people and can just dominate, like he does on Real Time, but at least here it doesn't hurt the show but is rather the whole deal. He is on good form here even though he is very much putting out the same material that he has on other places. I did laugh several times though and he did have some killer lines that showed edge and imagination – the best by a million miles being his comment on the topic of Obama being popular that Republicans can also fill a stadium (I'll not ruin the gag by typing it here).These laughs are necessary because otherwise he does rather hammer the same old points in a way that is amusing but not particularly funny. The reason for this is that he is just forcing his rather simple opinion down the throats of those who already agree with them. It is a shame that he does this because he is a funny guy with a good presence on the stage but his material is lacking at times and his friendly crowd is very necessary. Fans of his will love it while causal viewers such as myself will find some strong laughs amongst the "so-so" ones. Not a great show but a solid one – and to be honest, Maher is at his best when he doesn't have to allow anyone else to get a word in.

I agree with plenty of Bill Maher's viewpoints, but detest the self-righteous way in which he delivers his message. In this HBO special, he affirms his moral superiority to many of his fellow Americans, and does not apologize for calling many of them "stupid" simply for voting for George W. Bush. Even though this special was made more than a year after Barack Obama's inauguration, Maher still has a bone to pick with "Dubya", though George Walker Bush is by no means his only target. Ever since her debut on the world stage about a year-and-a-half prior to this Bill Maher special's airing, John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin has been a polarizing figure, both a conservative darling and a liberal punching bag: guess which view of Palin Bill Maher takes with a vengeance? His criticism of Palin is so obvious and repetitive that it gets boring.On the other extreme, Maher does bend over backwards to warn those he may potentially offend, especially on the topic of his criticism of organized religion. I must give him some kudos for giving those easily offended a heads-up about his criticism of religion, though it was no more harsh than his criticism of conservatism. I did find his personification of the Holy Trinity funny; in fact, even though it is potentially offensive to religious people, it was the funniest part of his entire monologue. Maher also goes over his way to defending Barack Obama more than half a year after being inexplicably rebuked by some in the media for his mild chiding of the current president's kid-gloves approach to politics; not that he has abandoned his criticism of Obama entirely, but he also moves in the other extreme of praising Obama. To top it off, Maher makes what seem like rater childish remarks by branding conservatives as racists.There are some high points: I liked that Maher actually did not condemn Eliot Spitzer and Tiger Woods for their adultery, which in this case is a huge exception to his self-righteous tone, and actually condoned male sexual behavior, albeit in a simplistic way, which I understand is necessary for a comedy special (as opposed a serious sexology class at Harvard).I have never seen Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity on TV, so I do not know why liberals find them unlikable, but I have heard some say that they find both men's self-righteous tone turns them off; it might be fair to say that Bill Maher is a mirror image of those conservative pundits. I know that the title for Bill Maher's is supposed to be cheeky and ironic, but one would not be wrong to take it as a literal statement, based on what one sees in this special. Luckily, Maher does show some humility, and I will continue to watch his hilarious "New Rules" segments on his "Real Time" show, which are invariably the best part of that weekly series.Maher was funnier when he was romping around with Shannon Tweed in the jungles of the UC Riverside Botantic Gardens. Even liberals may balk at the attitude of his latest HBO special. Still, I recommend people watch it and make up their own minds.