Dis-Joint-ed

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2020)

Da 5 Bloods is a messy, disjointed 2.5 hours which tries to be so many different things but never seems to amount to anything lasting.
Even the premise is confused. It's sold as being: "Four African American veterans return to Vietnam decades after the war to find their squad leader's remains - and a stash of buried gold." However the film is so focused on the gold, the brotherhood element which seemed core to the story ends up being fitted in where appropriate to fit the narrative.
The inclusion of 'reality' within the film does help set the tone, but ultimately creates a confused jumble from flitting between being a history lesson to a piece of fiction, not helped with some of the odd editing choices.
There's a lot of praise for the acting - in particular Delroy Lindo - but there is also some really poor acting which again creates another imbalance throughout.
Ultimately, the movie is going to have a much greater impact given the timing of its release and what is happening in the World right now, however this doesn't detract from it being an uneven, overlong and disjointed watch.