n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Brilliant , mind blowing ,BIOGRAPHY DRAMA..........................................................................................................dont miss this one

James Randi is known as a master magician, escapologist and illusionist. In recent years he is better known as a man who exposes fake psychics and faith healers.He regards conjurers as honest people, psychics and faith healers as being dishonest, who swindle people from their money and at worse dangerous with their quack medicine.The film traces Randi's life from downtown Toronto to when he first saw his magic show and his interest in Harry Houdini. He was a regular in the American late night talk show circuit since the 1970s.However from the 1970s onward when the likes of Uri Geller and Peter Popof showed up on television with their amazing feats, Randi felt the need to expose these charlatans. Geller's spoon bending was just good conjuring and in The Johnny Carson Show, Geller was stumped that night because the producer had followed Randi's advice in setting up the props.Popof used Jesus to cure people but he knew their ailments because it was all fed to him on a mic wired up to him as his researchers talked to the audience before hand.Still as Geller said these days despite people being more rational and educated, despite Randi's efforts there are more psychics, faith healers and flimflam men than ever before. Both Geller and Popof are plying their trade.The last part of the film delves into Randi's personal life. The film hints at his sexuality and his relationship with a young Venezuelan José Alvarez who has been his companion for several decades. However Alvarez suffered an expose of his own with immigration authorities causing Randi no end of troubles and heartache as to what he really knew.This was an enjoyable watch, nice to see him embarrass the likes of Geller and Popof but really they are coated with some kind of Teflon as they have no shame. The money is out there and Geller and Popof just reinvented themselves and still grabbed it. The film hints was this all for nothing?

In the words of Robert Houdin, the father of modern illusion, "A magician is just an actor playing the part of a magician." If that be the case then James Randi is among the most prolific actors that has ever lived. The Canadian-born self-described charlatan has played a variety of roles over an 87-year life, from talented stage magician, daring escape artist, paranormal debunker, dedicated skeptic and doting husband. Yet recording a partial list of his accomplishments does very little in getting to the meat of a life that's beyond extraordinary. For that you have to see An Honest Liar, an unassuming biographical documentary that is arguably the best personal profile ever put on screen.The first act opens quite as you would expect; a run-down of who James Randi is, where he's from (Toronto, Canada) and how he got involved in magic (Houdini and Harry Blackstone naturally). The film then follows the rabbit trails of every interview which are informed by the likes of fellow magicians Penn & Teller and Alice Cooper among others. Yet lest you think the perfunctory limitations of a biographical documentary are boring, you clearly don't know much about Randi the Great. He carved up a living in magic early on after dropping out of high school to join the Canadian National Exhibition. At the height of his career he was a popular escape artist who would exeunt prison cells, safes and submerged water coffins.In his 30's he became well known as a mentalist though he soured to the idea after other mentalists, showboating evangelists and other "occultists" began using their illusions to fool their audiences. "Magicians are the most honest people in the world. They tell you they're going to fool you, and then they do it," He says while discussing the differences between himself and those who claim supernatural powers.It was in the 60's that Randi began a second career as a professional skeptic to prevent con artists from exploiting their audiences. Thanks to frequent appearances on television he single- handedly destroyed the reputations of faith healer Peter Popoff and Israeli psychic Uri Geller. It is these rivalries along with Randi punk-ing academia on a regular basis that provide the film with much of its high-drama. Randi would often work with fakes, embark in deep-cover magician espionage and even perpetuate hoaxes in attempts to keep everyone honest. His crusade to expose the fakes not only garnered the attention of cultural icons like Johnny Carson but of Venezuelan performance artist Jose Alvarez who would later become Randi's husband in 2013.Told with sensitivity and an eye for conflict, An Honest Liar stands as a perfect example of a documentary taking on the personality of its subject. The film digs ever deeper into the motivations of the bristled Randi who by 2014 still had a mind sharper than a German steak knife. Thanks in part to serendipity, the filmmakers are awarded by their persistence with some truly revealing moments. There are some narrative fumbles thanks in part to some truly unexpected revelations. That said, the high-stakes emotions of the last act can't help but feel genuine, even if echos of F for Fake (1973) make it nearly impossible for audiences to suspect foul-play.Like a diamond in the rough, An Honest Liar is a film that enlivens the documentary film genre while telling the highly entertaining story of an extraordinary life. Meticulously deceitful, playfully intelligent and magically engaging, An Honest Liar shines the light on the dangers of fraud and does so through the granular life of "Randi the Great".

!!!! SPOILERS !!!!! Yeah I know it's a documentary but I'm taking no chances James Randi ? One of the first names I discovered via getting connected to the internet . I know over 3.600 IMDb comments beg to differ but when I first had an internet account in Febuary 2001 my favourite sites were the skeptics ones exposing and demolishing everything to do with faith healing , para-psychology and other nonsense . One name that constantly kept cropping up , almost on a par with being a secular God of the skeptical movement , was James Randi , a Canadian born sceptic who started out as a magician and who later became an exposer of frauds , hoaxes and other naughty rip off merchants . This documentary tells of his life , his great successes and his present life which despite all his fame involves something of a personal tragedy of sorts The documentary works best when it concentrates on Randi exposing cheats and how gullible the public are when it comes to being cheated . Anyone remember The Carlos Hoax ? I'm too young too remember but archive footage shows Randi taking a young South American called Jose Alvarez who claimed to channel spirits of the dead to Australia , making up easily checkable fake resumes and getting "Carlos" on every Australian news and documentary show Carlos strutted his stuff with the dead . He could have been a household name today but it was up Randi and Alvarez themselves to stick their hand up and state it was all an act and was done merely to show how lazy , incompetent and downright useless journalists can be when checking facts . Then we get the famous exposure of evangelical faith healer Peter Popoff whose direct contact with God was down to the much less miraculous miracle of wearing an earpiece and getting his wife to give names and ailments of people in the congregation . Randi's (in)famous and long running feud is also covered along with a few now forgotten self promoting self proclaimed mystics Now one thing you can't really accuse Randi of is being lovable . From what I've seen of him he's short tempered , doesn't suffer fools and takes no prisoners . This isn't a criticism and if DOCTOR WHO was an American show Randi would have been born to play the anti-heroic cantankerous incarnation of the first Doctor . Don't believe for a second that this is a sycophantic glowing love letter to James Randi and the clue is in the title - AN HONEST LIAR . As it turns out Randi is a homosexual which he revealed late in life . Again not a criticism . And he partnered up to Jose "Carlos" Alvarez many years ago . Again not a criticism . But as it turns out Alvarez isn't who he claims to be and is one Deyvi Pena who entered America on a false passport , Cue a fair amount of unspoken innuendo that the man who exposed so many con artists has become a victim of sorts to a con artist . I thought this aspect of the documentary which has a feel of undisguised schadenfreude was rather unfair and just a little bit cruel towards Randi and ends an often fascinating documentary on a downbeat , negative vote