Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Really??!! This is a movie from the great Spike Lee? Wtf? I am shocked that such a respected director could make such a weak and out of place movie about such an important, relevant and interesting theme (especially at the moment)!!! 154 minutes of poor choices, weak script, terrible dialogues and horrible music. 154 minutes of my life I will never get back!!

It feels like the movie was taken right out of the editing room after only 5-10 % of the work was done, just for the benefit of throwing this movie into the world at the moment when the world is discussing the major issues of racism. This poor excuse of a movie did not contribute to the discussion in any way! How did this ever land on Netflix, do they not have a quality filter??!

Fmovies: Give yourself five minutes of this shameful farce, and anyone who has any understanding of Vietnamese culture and history will be dumbfounded by the sheer stupidity of this movie. I have spent 20+ years of my life dedicated to Vietnamese culture and history. I have spent several years in Ho Chi Minh City where much of this movie takes place. I'm fluent in the language, and have even been to Majestic hotel and been to "Apocalypse Now" (dumb bar) in HCM City.... This movie uses that place as a cheap reference to American popularity, amongst a sad and pathetic representation of a culture that - in this movie's eyes - is still primarily focused on the Vietnam conflict. This isn't really the case. There are rare occasions throughout the years where I've felt that the repercussions of the times from 40+ years ago have a daily affect on the people of Vietnam. This movie wants to thrive on the idea than any and every thing that happens in this country is based on the U.S.' influence and actions from the past. They haven't completely moved on, but I will say unequivocally that "Da 5 Bloods" is one of the worst kinds of exploitation: The idea that America is the fault of Vietnam's current state in the world, and that they are still focused on past events to the same level of strength TODAY as it was even 30 years ago. This is a big, fat, egregious lie. The scene in the opening of the movie, when they're at the Apocalypse Now bar (which is a total knockoff bar for unknowing foreigners who don't understand Vietnam at all), and a guy with a missing leg asks for money saying "GI, you GI".... holy moly that was the end before the movie even began. Then it proceeds to the next scene, where one of the characters meets an old lover, and he meets the woman's daughter, who is obviously half-black, and half-Vietnamese.... it only gets more maudlin and disingenuous after that. This is one of the most insulting representations of current-day Vietnam culture that I've ever seen. It's self-serving, and ignominious in ways that makes the cliches of the implications of U.S. actions in past world events end up being used for the most arrogant and self-serving messages to supplement a cheap message from an ignorant mastermind that thinks this movie has a story to tell. This story is false from scene one, and only gets more embarrassing as it progresses. When you have a story based on a false premise, it makes the entire experience an indigestible proverbial hairball in the throat, incapable of being accepted as something which can be consumed by normal means. This is a pathetic, sad, dishonorable mess of incoherence that doesn't understand even the most basic requirements to represent Vietnamese culture. That in itself is an affront to moviemaking. It only gets worse from there.

Clumsy at best. Watched this with my family and the moment with the battle scene at the beginning and the completely inappropriate music was the first time we all looked at each other with a wtf ?? Then the scene where one of them meets his old flame - again the music and script made us realize ahhh maybe this movie stinks. I know the little history lessons show horned in is a Spike Lee staple but it makes you feel like you're watching a PowerPoint presentation. Give it a miss

Da 5 Bloods fmovies. This films intro was the best bit. It all went downhill from there. Two and half hours of predictable plot and awful unnatural dialogue. The cinematography was jarring for the wrong reasons with a colour palette that didn't match within individual scenes. The changing aspect ratio was a nice touch but I feel like this was an after thought as much of the framing felt off and was awfully wide for what felt like no reason.

The editing was rather lacklustre and felt like a soap opera.

I can see why this film is being praised due to its messages of inequality and awful treatment of African Americans throughout all of americas history. I would've appreciated these messages if they weren't served to me with a spoon.

I feel like the filmmakers in the editing room said "apocalypse now was a great Vietnam war film. We should pay homage to it" and with this in mind they added flight of the valkyries to the soundtrack. Poor taste and craft.

Spike has missed the boat again with this one! So, so bad. I write this as I'm two hours in, thoroughly convinced that it ain't getting any better. Poor script; in fact, an utterly empty script that does no justice to the real "Bloods" who lost their lives or left the best of their lives in the jungles of Vietnam. If I were to meet him, I'd ask, "Why, Spike. Just why?" The script is, again, so poorly written; it meanders and fails to ever find its focus and aim, engendering no reason to invest in the story nor the characters therein. The cast members are all great talents. However, they are tragically, criminally, wasted here. I was bored, my family too, by the thirty-minute mark, and it managed to even go further down hill from there. An utter waste of time. There is nothing, nothing redeeming about this disaster of a thrown-together film. Implausible and uninspired, it is, and I say all this as I true Spike Lee fan. Please, please, do yourself a favor and avoid this god-awful film! PLEASE! LIFE IS TOO SHORT!

The context and resources had great potential to make it a great movie but Spike Lee missed the mark completely. Even the great actors playing couldn't save this.

We wanted to like this and forced ourselves to finish this 2.5ht movie. What a waste.

This could've been a much better movie if Mr Lee wasn't surrounded by yes men and hired better editors and script writers.