Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee (2022) User Reviews

Very messy documentary

[rwhstigt · 5/10 · 24 August 2022]

Could have been a very interesting story about John McAfee's life, but this docu is so messy.

So many people are interviewed in this with so much knowledge about his life, for example this ghost writer. But after watching the whole docu, why do I still not have any clue why John was bugging those government officials in Belize? Or was he really hallucinating? When/why/how was the relation ended with his girlfriend after escaping from Guatemala? Why wanted the Mexican kartel him dead or was this also BS? How could he escape back to the US from the hospital in Guatamala? Etc. Etc. Soooo confusing.

Chaos

[rivalution · 6/10 · 24 August 2022]

Netflix is full of these lately... No structure, poor editing and story building. I left with more questions than answers, and it's not because it was so thought provoking. If you make a documentary, for heaven's sake - have a clear idea of what you're trying to say. The only advantage here is the proximity to the eccentric protagonist. But if you just finished a documentary and your first thought is "man, someone should really make a good documentary about this" - that's not a good sign...

Where in the Caribbean is john McAfee?

[Calicodreamin · 5/10 · 24 August 2022]

A documentary or an agglomeration of home videos from an eccentric millionaires yacht? The story had no flow and no message, just a few guys trying to make money off the fact they dedicated their professional careers to following McAfee around.

Another right-wing narcissistic psychopath

[Skorpyos · 7/10 · 27 August 2022]

The documentary is eye opening is showcasing the troubled yet privileged life of a narcissistic right-wing nutjob that spent his later years running from the law and gaslighting everything that he would interact with (sound familiar?).

I was glad that the documentary spent little time elevating his "genius" and instead focused on his psychopathic tendencies and twisted mentality that eventually led him to become a fugitive. The footage of him pretending to be disabled to feigning a stroke to weird actions like eating flowers further showed mcAffee's paranoia and inability to accept his actions. The fact that he was running to president of the US was unprecedented at the time, but since then we have seen that similar psychopaths with power can and will become president. We must be cognizant of that as a society and instead of elevating these insane people into power we need to ensure they end up in a psych ward where they can be treated and are not a threat to society.

A Decent Documentary on a Crazy Character

[tkdlifemagazine · 6/10 · 25 August 2022]

This is a good look at the crazy days and later life of John McAfee. There is another documentary made about the actual incident in Belize which gives a better look at the madness and duality of this madman. This one takes place mostlt after the incident and takes the viewer much more to date than the 1st. This is a decent and engaging look at a true story that is stranger than fiction.

This is complete garbage.

[dylio1 · 2/10 · 25 August 2022]

The majority of this documentary is focused on a Vice reporter and photographer and not on John McAfee. It barely covers his legitimate career in software, the circumstances of the murder in Belize he is suspected of and provides nothing insightful about his death in Spain. It's laughable the amount of interviews they have with the Vice guys. I mean who cares what these two idiots have to say. Do yourself a favor and read his Wikipedia page if you are curious and skip this so called documentary.

Predictably, it left out McAfee's most intriguing message

[fantard · 7/10 · 16 September 2022]

An entertaining documentation and dive into at the eccentric life of the infamous computer anti-virus software pioneer's eccentric life -- of which he seemed to have had large portions recorded. However, perhaps the most important message he left the world -- assuming he is, in fact, dead -- and if he is dead, this message might have been in part why -- was elided:

"Coronavirus facts:

Less than 2% of all cases result in death.

Approximately equivalent to seasonal flu.

Relax people.

Don't buy into this charade.

Something far more important is happening in the background."

"Do NOT, under any circumstances. Take the vaccine!!!"

(Feb. 5, 2020, via Twitter: John McAfee, @officialmcafee)

Dregs of humanity

[Valid_ID · 1/10 · 24 August 2022]

This is the messy story of an eccentric billionare, John McAfee, fleeing the accusation of murdering his neighbor.

Rather than being known as the "anti-virus guy", this film ensures McAfee will be known from now on as a crazy clown trying to escape the law.

McAfee likes to compare himself to the Joker from Batman. He's a rich, old guy, with a temper, and who acts chaotically.

Perhaps because the story is told "according to John", who is obviously bonkers, there is not much logic to it; the story jumps from place to place, revealing dregs from the sewers of humanity.

There's the former VICE reporter who cusses with every other word, and only thinks of how much he's going to bill his company, the 18 yr old Latina who sleeps with 65 y/o McAfee, and has an uncle in the corrupt Guatemalan government, a Miami prostitute who becomes one of McAfee's mistresses, and so on.

All these low-life characters are sniffing after McAfee's wealth. Despite being crazy, McAfee is also cunning, and uses them, then dumps them like trash.

I don't deny the entertainment value of this documentary, and the fact that people like to see the woes of the rich, but there's nothing moral, or enlightening, provided by this film.

It made me feel like I just rummaged through trash, gross.

The first 6 minutes are ok...

[pie-maker · 27 August 2022]

Then a "reporter" (access journalist?) appears on the screen and... starts talking. I don't know why a reporter would help a fugitive, or "accidentally" disclose his location in such a stupid way. The documentary tells the story of a malignant narcissist trying to run away from the consequences of his actions, his death, and the conspiracy theories around it. Why amplify conspiracy theories now? Why? Drugs, narcissism, death. A very stupid ending (he's dead- shut up with the JFK jr Q Anon nonsense!). Little empathy. A shaky camera. A series of bad choices. A bad guy, incompetent reporters, young girlfriends who follow him around like members of a cult.

A Totally Bonkers Man's End? Who Knows.

[AudioFileZ · 6/10 · 4 January 2023]

This is in no way a great documentary. It is more of a chaotic drop-in to the latter days of John McAfee. There is an attempt to create a unified whole out of the truly bizarre existence McAfee lived after he was sought as a suspect in the murder of another ex-pat neighbor he had accused of poisoning four of his dogs in Belize. McAfee believed he was targeted and, therefore, be tortured, possibly killed, by what he claimed was a corrupt Belize group of politicians. Soon it is apparent McAfee believes his own claims as he illegally enters Guatemala. The chaos grows to proportions that even the verifiable parts seem fantastic. The fact McAfee is quite possibly a pathological narcissist looms large as his drinking, drugging, and general paranoia grows. It is true that he became a hunted man, but by exactly who is anything but clear.

So, we have an often quite interesting documentary marred by elusive facts. McAfee, who seemed to have bottomless amounts of money, was eventually deported back to the USA. Amazing things were still as chaotic as ever even though he had a period of where he was free, even mounting a failed attempt as a Libertarian candidate for President of the United States. Knowing it was a matter of time before he would face more charges in the US he resumes his nomadic running lifestyle. It's all like a crazy movie script where the scriptwriter couldn't believe what he was writing to the point of a dis-jointed and fuzzy whole. The ending though is as good as any Hollywood thriller with a mystery that could , eventually, make a brilliant sequel...or, not.

Wow, these 'bros' from Vice tasked with the interview

[orcinussr · 4/10 · 25 August 2022]

How incompetent can you be? Then to make matters worse, they spent the remainder of the time with these daf setup shots and B roll of people chopping wood or this and that - PALEESE - just admit that u don't have any relevant footage or worthwhile interviews and call it what it is - (I'll leave that up to yall)

Hilarious!

[parasolspetticoats · 8/10 · 26 August 2022]

Watch it with some friends. It's absurd, enthralling and hilarious in many parts. If you appreciate debaucherous, self-indulgent narcissists and their follies, I say strap in. Drugs, booze, guns, corruption and the open sea. (They should have asked me to write a tagline for this one)

For those criticizing Netflix's ever-growing catalogue of bloated documentaries/docu-series; I hear you. They've been on a run for a while. Please keep in mind this is a one-off 1:40:00 doc and there are zero lulls within. You won't have to commit to three episodes of meandering fluff with no payoff. This one is a blast.

Dumpster Fire

[WIVEGI · 2/10 · 28 August 2022]

This is not one of those documentaries that if you just stick with it, will eventually makes sense or get better.

It's just a bunch of crap footage they quickly patched together without putting in enough effort to make it flow logically. It's hard to believe that the majority of footage used was shot by a professional. It was way too long for the very narrow focus they presented. The snippets of the ghostwriter were interesting, but completely out of place. He probably wasn't too happy to see the end product he contributed to.

The final scene with the girlfriend was just insulting to the audience. Then again, for those of us dumb enough to sit through the entire thing we probably deserved it.

Done correctly, this could've been an interesting and entertaining documentary.

Really a documentary of making a documentary of McAfee

[jussilahtinen · 3/10 · 24 August 2022]

I would have liked to see the documentary they were making with decent editing and camera work (looks like a child filmed this). Instead I saw tiresome mess consisting of more interviews of the makers of the document, than interviews of McAfee.

Has VICE never heard of checking the facts?!?

[Erik_Surewaard · 5/10 · 28 August 2022]

The basis for any decent documentary is that statements are checked and verified.

Well, this documentary does none of that. It just tells a story from one side in the hope that you believe it. Or at least to see what sticks to the wall. Because a lot of "facts" are thrown at the viewer that could have easily been checked with some authorities.

Why didn't they contact for instance the authorities of Belize to see what is true. Why wasn't the SEC or even the IRS asked for their opinion?! And since this is VICE - whom makes quite some documentaries on cartels - why didn't they also asked the Sinaloa cartel for their opinion.

What also would have been possible, is to have asked some security software experts to see what could have been true of McAfee's statements. How on earth could McAfee have keystroke software in computers of cartels, the U. S. government or the Belize government.

Is there not a mental illness that makes the patient believe that he is being observed and chased by the government?! So for all we know, McAfee was mentally ill?!

I find the documentary therefore a show of bad journalism. The content is though somewhat entertaining to watch. But I get the impression that is was watching more fiction than fact.

I'm surprised that Netflix put their name on this attempt at a "Making of..." a fake documentary

[michaelfarkas-74190 · 2/10 · 30 August 2022]

This isn't really a documentary, as it's founded on lies. It's also not *really* a crime story, because it's hard to tell if anyone is actually chasing the subject for any alleged crimes.

John McAfee has already skipped town by the start of this. He allegedly kills his neighbor and then wants to move away. Vice sends these two incompetent boobs to follow his escape from the law - which is exactly what you don't want when running across international borders, possibly ducking a murder charge, is a "film" "crew"...both terms are charitably used in this case.

For trying to be a fugitive, there's a lot of documentation, exact coordinates, and announcing what a fugitive he is to anyone who will listen (18 year old hookers to wig shop flunkies). Which makes sense, because even those who can suspend disbelief for these kinds of things is asking questions about the veracity of this about 25 minutes in. By the halfway point, you just go, "oh, this is all made up." While the vice guys continue to make it about themselves - despite how uninteresting and slack-jawed they are (no one surprised you man, the best interviewee outfit you had was overalls? Stop it.) - this other also-ran comes along in the form of a ghostwriter. He ends up having pathetically superficial sound bytes while being blissfully aloof to his subject...so he's just as worthless as the vice clowns. One of which goes, "someone told me I take a nice picture" while detailing his life - irrelevantly, as the film isn't about him - but that's not obvious considering how poorly this is all shot. I've seen better cinematography and production value when Bob Saget was voicing over confused children on America's Funniest Home Videos.

For Netflix to try to stretch this over 100 minutes is more daring than anything revealed in the mock doc (I guess?). There's really nothing appealing here other than it's a story I've never heard before - but then you realize it's mostly fake, and all you have is an old drug abuser who is on a long bender but has no interesting friends.

Bonkers

[blues9981 · 9/10 · 29 August 2022]

Ignore the negative reviews. If you like documentaries on mega millionaires gone mad ala Howard Hughes, you will dig it. During the first half, he looked like he was going undercover as Roy Scheider and during the second half, the wheels fall off the train. We don't need to see him creating his software and collaborating with investors and selling his product and everything that happened during his rise to fame before his decline. McAfee took the ride and held on by a pinky til the end. A ton of alcohol and drugs and then a long slide into the darkness. A glimpse into the gunshot barrel of madness. It is what it is.

Of Course Vice. Of Course.

[helenahandbasket-93734 · 2/10 · 25 August 2022]

My God, what a waste of time and money this was.

First- the camera angles, yikes. This is like watching a 3-year old that picked up a camera and hit record. Make. It. Stop.

Second- the guy murdered his neighbor and deserved to be in prison. He's paranoid, narcissistic, and psychotic. That he didn't shoot any of these people is nothing short of a miracle.

Third- the guy had a thing for prostitutes. Funny how they don't really like him until they find out how much money he has.

Fourth- what a mess.

Don't bother, this is typical Netflix fare- poorly done, poorly filmed, poorly edited, poorly executed.

This is by far the worst documentary netflix has EVER produced

[jon_hsieh · 2/10 · 24 August 2022]

2 stars for the effort. This isnt even a documentary. This is just some garbage opinion piece a journalist threw together. Absolutely one sided. The amount of bs is spewing so hard. You would think a journalist would get some documentation to fact check this maniac. Watched 80% couldnt even finish.

Great Story- Very Poorly Executed

[cweave-65318 · 5/10 · 25 August 2022]

As someone who was previously very tied into and intrigued by the almost bond villan-like history of John McAfee, I was initially very excited to see a first-hand account of his endeavors at a personal level.

Overall, I felt that the actual storytelling and timeline of this documentary left a lot to desire and more questions than answers. A lot of the content focused more or less on the storytellig of the documentarians who followed him rather than making McAfee the focal point of of the story.

The overall structure and format of the documentary also seemed all over the place and seemed to follow a plot line and just pivot to something else. For instance, the ghostwriter who essentially knows his life story first-hand was given only a few minutes of screentime while being a great source for his background and history.

Candidly, I think this documentary would have been more effective as a 4 episode mini-series that spends more time developing and diving into the context of WHO John McAfee actually was on top of more context rather than constant sound bites and clips that don't really provide much context.

absolute confusing rubbish

[daanovertoom · 3/10 · 28 August 2022]

These 2 guys are the worst reporters i have ever seen, they never ask any relevant questions and the one time one does he doesnt get an anser.

Every scene you are reminded of the incomptence of these guys, all filler shots, terrible camera angles, and not even being able to work the cameras, hide the metadata of the picture or actually stay with him.

There are so many more answers we could have gotten about topics they just didnt think about exploring.

Its just 2 fumbling idiots too proud of some alone time with a famous weird guy to realize that their story is trash, trying to piggyback on the interesting life of john mcafee but not being able to.

Inside a Brilliant Meth Head

[mannysan-1 · 8/10 · 25 August 2022]

Another torchered childhood story, but this one is a genius that became a powerful billionaire, on meth. It is an exclusive assignment that even these experienced war correspondents say enough as they follow McAfee when he started his run in 2012. He has his charm and almost makes you believe...

The after credit final hook had me laugh out loud for 30 seconds. Stranger than fiction...

This is garbage of a documentary

[prolead · 1/10 · 26 August 2022]

I can make a better documentary half asleep. What is this crap? Absolutely horrible quality full of B roll shots. These people should never be allowed to make a documentary. Absolute waste of time. Is Netflix trying to kill itself?

Messy

[awallburg23 · 4/10 · 25 August 2022]

Confusing and messy, another in a string of Netflix documentaries lately that does not seem to have a theme, could have been so much better but just felt like a middle school project.

Interesting(ish) Story, Terribly Told

[There-I-Said-it · 2/10 · 26 August 2022]

McAffe was a nut which makes for an entertaining watch, but the format and story telling by the filmmakers is awful. No structure to it at all, just a mess thrown together with frat boy like journalists and "friends" reliving their memories.

The saying birds of a feather holds true here, most of the people you meet are superficial seekers and hold no redeemable qualities, John being chief among them.

It's clear that McAffe is delusional yet the documentary does nothing to either validate or invalidate his wild conspiracies.

It's a shame they didn't delve more into how McAffe fell from grace. That would have been more interesting than this which would have been more aptly titled "McAffe Gone Wild".