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

I can honestly say that I love magic. No, not the hoodoo spooky stuff where people do incantations but the entertaining style of magic with card tricks and floating women. Doug Henning and David Copperfield style magic. And one of the most legendary performers of magic has been the Amazing Randi. Not only has he performed with amazing skill he's also taken the task of exposing film flam man and con artists who would prey on the innocent and gullible. This makes him a hero in my book.The title of this film involves a play on words of sort. We're told that magicians are actually liars to the nth degree but that unlike those who prey on people they are up front about it. They tell the audience in advance I'm going to lie to you and make you believe I have powers that don't exist when in fact I'm playing a trick on you. But there is something else to James Randi that many never knew about that made him an honest liar of a different sort. It wasn't something he quite hid but it wasn't something he talked about either. It was the fact that he was gay.But the movie doesn't focus solely on that. Instead it covers the life of this amazing magician from early no through his rise as a performer of note, appearing numerous times on programs like The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He appeared on stages around the world. And at the height of his fame he stepped back and began a crusade to stop people from abusing tricks and skulduggery to harm folks into believing they could actually perform miracles they could not.The biggest scam he uncovered (and one I'd heard of prior to seeing this film) was a television minister who claimed her could heal the sick. This man would encourage people to toss away their prescribed medicines claiming they no longer needed them once he healed them. It turns out he was using an earpiece and the information he had on members of the audience was being fed to him by his wife in the back, information taken from cards people in the audience had filled out when they arrived. Randi exposed him for what he was and how he did what he was doing. Sadly for those who believe in the healing powers of faith it is charlatans like this that besmirch the name of those they claim to represent. Randi knew this and set out to shine a light on them.The movie not only talks about his life as a performer and debunker of false mystics, it talks about his life long relationship with his partner Jose Alves. This becomes another form of an open lie taking place as well. Having read about it before I wasn't stunned when it becomes known in the film just what that hidden piece of information is but I won't reveal it here for those unaware.What is nice about the topic of Randi's being gay in this film is that it doesn't turn it into a political stance. Their affection for one another is not something that they feel needs a huge display on film. You know by the end of the film just how much these two mean to one another and that's fine. Whether you agree or disagree with people who are gay doesn't make a difference in this film. It never becomes an issue. It is accepted and discussed and that's all there is to it.The work that Randi did in stopping charlatans who preyed on the weak was a noble effort. When he's gone I wonder who will be left to take up his cause. I'm hoping someone will do so, someone who has as much knowledge on the topic as he does. As for magicians there are always those who will amaze us with their abilities. Watching this film you witness just how great a magician he truly was/is and appreciate him for how amazing a performer he has been.You will also see that he has and always was an honest liar. He told us up front he planned on deceiving us. He did just that in more ways than one. And yet it never affected how we viewed him or how much we enjoyed what he was able to do. After watching this an appreciation for all he provided will be the end result.

The life and career of the renowned stage magician turned scientific skeptic of the paranormal, James Randi.We have some great classic footage, though some is a bit fuzzy by modern standards. The well-known debate with Uri Geller is here, but also a pretty thorough section on Peter Popoff, whose story I did not know about. It is sad to know that these guys get debunked and keep on going.The film also focuses on Randi's relationship with his boyfriend of twenty-five years, José Alvarez, who at the time of filming, had been discovered to be living under a false identity, calling into question "whether Randi was the deceiver or the deceived." This is quite a fascinating twist, as the great debunker turns out to have been sharing his life with the greatest con of all.

For me, this is a movie about a great professional magician, sadly spoiled by a secondary personal relationship plot line introduced about 1/2 way though. This action erases the early cinematic and plot perfection leaving the whole experience flawed. The movie started aimed at one outcome, but then switches to a different target. The switch comes across as contrived, sort of a mixed metaphor.The genre switches from comedy to tragedy, without an epic hero; the second half tragic protagonist is not Randi. The movie shot a lot of scene arrows, but at different targets, unnecessarily watering down the entire effort.I came away liking and profoundly respecting the art and science of James Randi, who is quite the magician in his own right and time, turned detective and debunker of charlatans. His personal life was artfully dealt with at first, then paraded like dirty laundry when it wasn't. Maybe the storyteller's intent was to debunk the debunker, but the magic of the reveal was lacking, not consequential, but incidental. Therefore, the original comedic genre became a tragedy without pity or fear.I recommend it for the first half alone, the part about the Amazing Randi, his acclaimed magic and debunking. Still, maybe walk out 1/2 way though when the protagonist shifts character unnecessarily in a spoiling way, turning a great wine of a movie sour.