82
Metascore
49 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawIt’s all so inventively bizarre that you could treat it simply as a black comedy, but in the final 15 minutes there is an amazing crescendo of emotion.
- 100RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonRogerEbert.comOdie HendersonLee 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, whether in heroic situations or human ones.
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperChicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDirector Lee and the team of writers have created an immersive, violent and sometimes shocking tapestry that plays out like “Deer Hunter” meets “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” with a steady undercurrent of subtle and not-so-subtle social and political commentary.
- 100New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNew York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriIt is one of the greatest films Spike Lee has ever made.
- 80Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangThe tonal shifts can be so abrupt as to induce whiplash, not to mention a kind of moral and narrative chaos, which seems to be very much to the movie’s point. The rich, tumultuous history of Black life over the past century could certainly find a worse cinematic analogue than this heady swirl of wry comedy, seductive music, ferocious argument and devastating carnage.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyEven if Da 5 Bloods at times seems to be morphing into an entirely different movie, its playfulness, as much as its raw power, keeps you glued.
- 80Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganLee is firing off rounds in all directions here. Some land, some distract, some feel like overkill. For cineastes, it’s a provocative redrawing of the canon; Coming Home or The Deerhunter, and even Stone’s so-called “definitive” work including Platoon now seem only part of the picture.
- 75IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnA loose, caustic look at the Vietnam war through the prism of black experiences, Da 5 Bloods wrestles with the specter of the past through the lens of a very confusing present, and settles into a fascinated jumble as messy and complicated as the world surrounding its release.
- 70VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeThe 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.”
- 42The A.V. ClubAshley Ray-HarrisThe A.V. ClubAshley Ray-HarrisSpike Lee’s cultural messaging for once fails him in the politically muddled Da 5 Bloods. With the film, Lee offers his submission to a history of bloodied, masculine Vietnam War movies. Sadly, he’s more concerned with making a Vietnam movie that looks Black than one that actually takes on the complexities of Blackness, war, and global imperialism.