Da Five Bloods (2020)

REVIEW BY: ROBERT CHANDLER

Oof... I lasted 1 hour and 23 minutes into Spike Lee’s DA FIVE BLOODS before baling out with over an hour to go.

It just wasn’t good enough. The storytelling was derivative and ramshackle. The sub-titles annoying. The use of music appalling.

That clichéd score for the first firefight at the downed plane was terrible, and I was tempted to jump ship after Ride Of The Valkyries was played inappropriately as the heroes embarked on their boat trip up the river at the end of act one. It was so wrong.

Troy Kennedy Martin, who wrote KELLY’S HEROES, should have received some of the writing royalties for such an obvious plot pinch.

The actors worked hard, Clarke Peters, terrific; Chadwick Boseman, searing; and Delroy Lindo, always a treat to watch. I kept hoping Delroy would galvanise the film, turn it into something compelling.

I did like the characters staying the same age in the flashbacks - that was inventive and an interesting riposte to The Irishman and the general vogue for de-aging characters in film.

But the scenes depicting the finding of the gold (again with the terrible and inappropriate score) and locating the body were both ludicrous and lazy, with some of the dialogue being way too on the nose. Yet, these should have been vital scenes. What the hell happened?

I rarely post negative reviews but this gave me too much cause for concern.

I wanted it to be good. Look at that poster artwork!

This should have been a vital, of-the-moment movie... damn.