For once the negative reviews here are generally right

Rating: 4/10 (22 June 2020)

I've always taken user reviews on IMDb with a pinch of salt. Too often people have watched a film that is not up to their taste or intellectual interest. They then post a destructive and equally misleading review out of annoyance. Before watching Da 5 Bloods I had quick look at the downbeat opinions of this film and thought, yes more of the same uninformed trashing, or even trolling, of what should be a smart and thought provoking movie. Sadly, on this occasion they were right.
Like others here, I too have great respect for Spike Lee and was expecting a film equal to his honest and outspoken political views. But this isn't it. As has already been said, it's a mess. It is entertaining in parts but there are too many ideas, at least two too many subplots and a lazy expectation that the viewer will accept weird concepts such as the main protagonists looking exactly the same before and after fifty years have passed. Or that a war-baby daughter born circa 1970 would be around twenty-seven years old now in the time of President Trump. That along with the all too obvious ad-libbing going on between the otherwise brilliant cast underlines the kind of lack of discipline that the younger Spike Lee would have scoffed at.
Earlier Vietnam War films were referenced in criticism or homage; Rambo, Apocalypse Now. But a prominent, and completely unnecessary, plot twist actually reminded me of Tropic Thunder; a film which blatantly satirises Hollywood's sidelining of black actors (in the shape of Robert Downey jr's character's outrageous use of black face). In that film and this a remnant if the past is triggered in exactly the same way and the cast are sucked into a mini re-run of the Vietnam War complete with bloodthirsty Quasi-Vietcong stereotypes on their tail. I don't feel good making that comparison this is a Spike Lee film after all!
There is a good movie in there, it just needs a really good re-cut!