Name: Da 5 Bloods - "Being back here, it is not easy."
Item: Da 5 Bloods
Author: @dedicatedguy

Netflix recently released this interesting looking movie, about a group of black soldiers who developed a strong friendship with each other when they battled together in the Vietnam war several decades ago. Soldiers who participate in these horrible conflicts often end up with psychological traumas as a result of all the atrocities they watched while in war.

In this group of friends, they all seem very normal but there is one of them who has some trauma due to events that happened during the war which we will discover at a later point in the movie. The story is that during the war, this group of soldiers had the mission of recovering a shipment of physical gold that was meant to be used as a form of payment for the local people who helped American troops.

They managed to recover the gold, but since they didn't have much money and their salary was probably low as well, they then decided to hide this gold underground and retrieve it at a later date in order to keep it for themselves. However, bombings were very common in the war, and the place where they hid the gold was destroyed, they didn't have the coordinates so they thought the gold was lost forever. Decades later, they find new information that could help them find these gold pieces and they even try to find the remainings of one of their friends who died in battle.

The story is set in the present time, these ex-soldiers are now old men and they don't have the same energy as before but their friendship and brotherhood ties remain as strong as ever. I believe the movie had potential but there were many things that I didn't like that ultimately make this production a disappointing one.

One of the things I didn't like was the presence of certain inconsistencies involving the characters and the timeline. For example, if they fought in the Vietnam war, that was close to 50 years in the past, 50 years! This was the first time they returned to the country after fighting in the war, and there is a character that looks very young but would have to be at least 49 years old!

Also, the men don't look that old, they are seniors but they would have to be something like 18 years old when in Vietnam in order for their current looks to be consistent with the passage of time. And since their mission was important, I doubt the military will task a group of 18 years old to recover millions in gold.

Another weak point was the incredible coincidence when a group of people with a certain skill finds this group of ex-soldiers exactly when they are facing a problematic situation that can be solved if both groups work together. That was almost impossible to happen because the jungle/mountain area is super big, so for these 2 groups to find each other in that particular situation wasn't believable at all.

There was also an attempt at portraying a sad scene that didn't have the emotional impact they were probably looking for, and the acting in that particular scene was crappy. With the men pretending to be sad and almost wiping themselves but that didn't feel authentic at all. The soundtrack of the film was also very out of touch at times.

If you enjoy Tarantino's movies, there are some scenes with his style but the movie is mostly about drama and conflicts involving these ex-soldiers. The violence makes its appearance at the end of the film. I think people can be entertained with this film, but since there were too many mistakes calling it a high-quality production would be exaggerated.