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Da 5 Bloods

2020

Spike Lee

Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr. ...

5.3

3,432

War. Drama. Adventure Four African-American Vets — Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) — return to Vietnam. Searching for the remains of their fallen Squad Leader (Chadwick Boseman) and the promise of buried treasure, our heroes, joined by Paul's concerned son (Jonathan Majors), battle forces of Man and Nature — while confronted by the lasting ravages of The Immorality of The Vietnam War.

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"A shocking, incendiary blend of searing satire and action-movie drama (...) 'Da 5 Bloods' is a paintball gun loaded with real bullets (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Spike Lee hits a new career peak with this game-changer (...) Lee has made more than a soul-stirring film for our time. He’s made one for the ages (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Ann Hornaday The Washington Post	"'Da 5 Bloods' may not be perfect, but it arrives at a time when it feels necessary (...) [It] is most invigorating when Lee is most sharply polemical (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"Spike Lee has delivered some of the most culturally significant, generationally important and flat-out entertaining movies of the last 30+ years, and he does it again with 'Da 5 Bloods' (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Kambole Campbell Empire	"A fascinating, frequently gripping and powerful interrogation of the connection between American imperialism, anti-Black racism, and the widespread trauma of the country’s war-making (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Brian Truitt USA Today	"Who knows what the upcoming Oscar season will look like in a coronavirus world, but Lee nevertheless has gifted us with the first serious best-picture contender of 2020 (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Caryn James BBC	"A condemnation of the past, a call for change, and a rich work of art worth watching over and over again (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Peter Debruge Variety	"Ambitious but uneven (...) The result is overlong and erratic, but also frequently surprising for a contemporary riff on the classic greed-doesn’t-pay parable 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.'"
		David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"Even when this inventive Netflix feature gets messy and convoluted in the second half, with the director's tonal control sometimes faltering, we are wholeheartedly invested in these men for the duration."
		Eric Kohn IndieWire	"This loose, caustic look at aging Vietnam vets is a Spike Lee joint that illustrates the rarity of an American filmmaker so confident in his sensibilities and style that nothing can slow them down."
		Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"Its political anger feels so urgent that it can scarcely be contained by the parameters of a TV screen. What’s notable is the way in which Lee (...) translates that anger cinematically"
		Bilge Ebiri Vulture	"The present-day Bloods are an engaging bunch to spend time with (...) It is one of the greatest films Spike Lee has ever made."
		Matt Goldberg Collider	"It may not be among [Lee's] best features, but it shows him continually wrestling with big ideas about race, history, and America, and right now, we need stories like this. Lee may not always win the fight, but I’m glad he’s in the arena"
		Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"Overall, this is a film which isn’t afraid to take a stand, or to be complex (...) 'Da 5 Bloods' has all the argumentative ranginess of Lee’s earliest work"
		Robert Daniels The Playlist	"A worthy, if bloated, war epic (...) Lee’s film suffers from languid pacing"
		Odie Henderson rogerebert.com	"Lee has crafted an exciting, violent film that can be enjoyed as strictly that, but what elevates it to greatness is what it says and what it shows about the perception of Blackness (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Chris Hunneysett Mirror	"I wish I’d been able to experience this on the big screen, though it's no less a masterpiece on the small (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Jordan Hoffman TV Guide	"It jerks between poignancy, action, comedy, and moral discussions, always in fascinating ways (...) It's worth checking (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Ashley Ray-Harris AV Club	"[Lee] is more concerned with making a Vietnam movie that looks Black than one that actually takes on the complexities of Blackness, war, and global imperialism."
		Steve Pond The Wrap	"An angry, incendiary and extraordinarily timely film that surveys decades of racism in the United States with a sharp, unflinching eye."
		Clarisse Loughrey The Independent	"Lindo is phenomenal here (...) 'Da 5 Bloods' is so busy with ideas, thoughts, and passions that, at times, it feels like it’s drowning in them (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Chris Evangelista SlashFilm	"Lee is able to wrap his messaging up in an entertaining package, crafting what could be considered a war pic and a heist story that has so much more on its mind"

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