An Honest Liar is a new streaming digital documentary about the life of magician, escape artist, and professional skeptic James “The Amazing” Randi. It’s a fairly good documentary that is really only interesting in some of the vintage film clips of the guy from the 50s through the 70s (and later). It covers too briefly his time fighting the baloney of Uri Geller and Peter Popoff… I wanted a little more of this. But something happens late in his life with his much younger boyfriend that comes out of the blue and doesn’t really fit what I expected from the flick. I guess its his life so I can’t argue that it shouldn’t be there, but it took up time that I felt better spent on his career.

And, yes, I did say his boyfriend because at 81 years old, he came out of the closet. And it’s kind of interesting to think that his hidden homosexuality was hidden not just because of the times he lived through but because revealing that would give the people he’s trying to debunk a sick kind of moral superiority in any argument.

But, overall, this documentary didn’t tell me much about the interesting parts of his life from the standpoint of a curious viewer of his skeptical pursuits. This is a little unfair to the man, I’ll admit, but I came for a movie called The Honest Liar. It’s not bad though, it’s watchable and competently made.

Score: 76