The big release of the week is Spike Lee’s ‘Da 5 Bloods’ on Netflix. Four black army veterans, Paul, Eddie, Otis, and Melvin return to Vietnam, with Paul’s son David, for the first time since the war. Ostensibly they are looking for the remains of a beloved ex-comrade but are, in fact, trying to locate a stash of gold bullion that buried in the jungle almost 50 years earlier.

In many ways this is a typical Lee joint. It addresses the racial inequalities in both the army and civilian life in the US, especially in the early scenes and there are a few amusing swipes at “President Bone Spurs”. However, for large parts of it, it all too obviously shows how the script has been kicking around for a while and was intended to star white actors, before Lee added his twist. It feels like two completely different movies melded together.

The influences from Three Kings for the story structure to ‘Apocalypse Now’ for the insanity and ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’, especially when David finds the gold and the stinking badges line, are pretty obvious, but that doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment. The performances are also roundly great, especially Isiah Whitlock as Melvin, Delroy Lindo as the increasingly disturbed Paul and Johnny Nguyen as the sympathetic guide come fixer.

I liked the decision to use the same actors in the flashbacks without trying to make them look younger, as it was them now remembering back to their younger days. I couldn’t get my head round, however, Otis meeting up with his ex-girlfriend who was too young to have been born when he was there half a decade earlier and their daughter who is only in her twenties.

So, entertaining and with a clear message but also a bit of a mess.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10

I also caught up on some other Netflix offerings…

Starting with the Mexican comedy ‘Mutiny of the Worker Bees’. A guy who has been wasting his life chasing get rich quick schemes gets a regular job in an office. There he meets a bunch of oddballs and his nemesis. Annoyingly shot in an overly frantic style and featuring over the top performances, this is dire stuff.
Rating: 3 out of 10

Despite deploying some similar visual tricks, the Spanish comedy ‘I Love You, Stupid’ is much better. A man, Marcos, is dumped by his girlfriend of 8 years and sacked from his job. With the help of an online influencer and an attractive old school friend Raquel, he meets by chance, he tries to reinvent himself and win her back.

Marcos, played by Quim Gutierrez is a likeable character and his inevitable realisation that he loves Raquel, nicely played by Natalia Tena, is pleasing despite the predictability.
Rating: 6 out of 10

In contrast, the sombre ‘All Day and a Night’ tells the story of a decent young man, Jahkor (Ashyon Sanders) living in the ‘hood in Oakland, who ends up committing murder.

This is certainly a timely movie and writer/director Joe Robert Cole clearly has the best intentions but the film is a bit of a slog. There is not much new and very little hope.
Rating 5.5 out of 10

Over on Amazon, Prime members can see the new release ‘Dating Amber’ for free. In mid 90’s Ireland, Eddie (Fionn O’Shea), a closeted gay lad and a lesbian girl, Amber (Lola Petticrew) decide to pretend to be in a relationship to fit in with their friends.

Anyone who has seen their share of coming of age films will not find anything massively original here. What it does have though is a sharp script from David Freyne, who also directs, and appealing performances all round. Petticrew in particular is superb. In fact her chemistry with O’Shea is so good, I was sort if hoping they would stay together, which I am sure wasnt Freyne’s intention!

All in all, a breezy watch. Film of the week.
Rating: 8 out of 10

Also available for free on the same site is the feeble Science Fiction flick ‘The Hill and the Hole’. When a land surveyor encounters a strange mound in a western town, strange events start happening.

The first half of this film is a real drag, every time the story threatens to get interesting it goes off on a tedious tangent. In the second half it becomes a both confusing and ridiculous.
Rating: 3.5 out of 10