An Honest Liar (2014)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I am sure James Randi is a wonderful person. Certainly he is a personality who influenced many, many whom are not in this documentary. I liked the old footage with a young Randi. But this is not his story. This is a bunch of facts piled up in a rather chronological order. I was very curious to meet his husband. Yet this is not a reason to like this badly done documentary. And the talking heads are mostly individuals even less smarter than the debunked charlatans.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

This is an interesting biography about James Randi (a.k.a. 'The Amazing Randi') but it's also one that seems very muddled and confusing towards the end--such that I really wasn't sure WHAT the filmmaker intended with this movie. Most of the film is about Randi's crusade to expose charlatans who prey on people by using magic tricks and labeling them either psychic powers or powers from God. When talking about this, the film was at its best and the first 85% of the film makes SANE viewers admire and love Randi and his work. However, towards the end, Randi's partner gets in trouble with the law for identity theft. His reasons seemed understandable but instead of just leaving the story there, the filmmaker ODDLY chose to then include a bunch of interviews with Uri Geller--all of which was left unchallenged by Randi or his associates. Giving a questionable character like Geller this opportunity just seemed bizarre as well as ran counter to the spirit of the rest of the film. I didn't understand this at all and it completely confused the film--and seemed unnecessary and, perhaps, a bit underhanded. Overall, I say watch the film but just turn it off near the end or read up on Geller--he's certainly no saint!!

I only recently became aware of James Randi as a debunker of hoaxes. I decided to watch this documentary. I was really loving this and prepared to give it a 10.... until about an hour and a half, the point at which the director prods James Randi into saying something due to his fears of losing his life partner of 25 years. He asks the director not to include his last comments.If at that point, the scene had ended and it had still been included in the movie, I probably could have lived with the director's choice to include the scene.However, the interviewer twice assures him that it won't be used AND THEN USES IT. (justifying it at the end credits as saying James Randi had agreed to ALL interviews being used. Well yeah, at the time he signed that he wasn't aware his life partner might be deported). James says "if I thought any of this would be used. I'd end the film now". (If the film had ended at this point, I also would have been fine with that choice)Instead....The director answers "no no no no" to try and calm him while James says he is trusting the interviewer. The interviewer does try to point out that they had discussed using ALL interviews, but then instead of holding firm... when James Randi says "I want this last part to vanish"... interviewer says "OK UNDERSTOOD. NO WORRIES." Randi then says again, "I trust you or I wouldn't be doing this." Interviewer, "Thank you". If he truly believed it needed to be included he shouldn't have told James Randi he wouldn't!It's not like James Randi just admitted killing Kennedy or something that had to be revealed to the world, something that truly justified violating his trust. For shame. Hope the interviewer doesn't plan to ever request an interview from anyone ever again. He has no integrity.The film then includes some quotes about "cons for good" which I think was trying to justify the inclusion. But it's a false equivalency. Including James' comments is NOT on the level of exposing psychic Channelers duping people for money or pointing out flaws in the scientific study of parapsychology.

"An Honest Liar" (2014 release; 95 min.) is a documentary about the life and works of James "The Amazing" Randi, a magician and escape artist along the lines of the infamous Houdini. Like Houdini, Randi later becomes a fierce opponent/prosecutor of those who lie to and manipulate the public for personal and monetary gain (such as the so-called faith healers and those who proclaim to channel the dead).Couple of comments: this documentary is co-directed by Tyler Measom (previously of "Sons of Perdition") and Justin Weinsteiny (previously of "Being Elmo"). In the early part of this documentary, we get an introduction as to Randi's background. Let me admit upfront that I had never heard of him. He left school at age 17 after having seen a magician's show in Toronto, deciding that he wanted to become "the next Houdini". By all means, Randi built a fabulous career (there are multiple clips from the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson). But things get a lot more interesting of course, once Randi decides (in the 1980s) to devote his efforts to exposing the cheaters and manipulators. The expose on self-proclaimed faith healer Peter Popoff is nothing short of brilliant (and stunning). "We're fighting the fakers", exclaims Randi. Towards the end of the documentary, when we get a taste of Randi's current personal life, there are a couple of further twists which I did not see coming."An Honest Liar" recently opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and I finally had a chance to see it on its second weekend. The early evening screening where I saw this at was quite well attended, somewhat to my surprise. In the end, I found "An Honest Liar" an okay documentary, but not as compelling as certain other recent documentaries like "Finding Vivian Maier", just to name that one. Still, if you are into documentaries, "An Honest Liar" is worth checking out, be it in the theater, or eventually on Amazon Instant Video or DVD/Blu-ray.