... in which case - discuss!

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

... in which case - discuss!

Here are a few items to get da ball rolling....

• Delroy Lindo's acting. In my humble opinion, Lindo is simply stellar in every Lee joint he has acted in. The father in Crooklyn and West Indian Archie in Malcolm X both added so much to those films. Lindo keeps up his standard in Da 5 Bloods, playing Paul, the anti-hero of the film. He doesn't get enough shine IMO.

• David's Morehouse tee-shirt. I know Lee went to Morehouse College, and I don't regret going to Michigan. However, both my dad and his dad before him were Morehouse men. Due to this, I really feel as though some of the values of "the house" were transmitted to me, and that I've benefitted from them. When the writer(s) worked David's tee-shirt into the storyline and David's possible survival in the film, I was moved by that particular scene and the writing. Bravo for that!

SPOILER BELOW:

• Da Bloods finding their squad leader Stormin' Norman's remains in the dirt in Vietnam. As I stated earlier, this was my favorite scene in the film -- the most moving one. I'm one of those folks who calls themselves "spiritual," and to me, the essence of that scene of the men praying over Stormin's bones was powerful -- effective. Thumbs up.

Those are just some points about the film that I found noteworthy....

Saw it. It was okay. It suffers a lot in the second half. The movie is waaaaaay too long. This should have been 2 hours max. I also didn't like the fact the soldiers are actively stealing the gold as "reparations" instead of just having them find it. It makes them look like thieves.

And although Delroy Lindo as Paul is the most complex character in the movie, using him as an anti-Trump soundboard got annoying after a while. It's like a girl who won't shut up about her ex who dumped her. He even wears a maga hat for most of the movie and then the final villain wears the hat. Why? He's not even American. That hat was dirty and sweaty, why would he put it on?

It's funny how people whom I have put on ignore previously keep replying to my posts. And it's funnier still how, due to recent changes to the site, I have no way of knowing what these people's names are in my "Blocked Users" list. Anyway, if anyone feels like helping out, they could tell Ask Me Anything to tell them what his/her current username is -- and then let me know, so I can remove them from my "Blocked" list, and finally, read his/her reply to my post.

Can anyone help out?

Hey I know how to help you-- oh wait, you can't read this because you'd rather live in a bubble than talk to someone who (I assume) didn't agree with you in the past. That's what ignorance gets you lol

No no discussion yet. Should there be ? What the hell is a "joint"? Another movie about Vietnam how exciting. Soldiers looking for treasure like in "Three Kings" and way before that in "Kelly's Heroes" ? Let the discussing begin.

@cswood said:

Hey I know how to help you-- oh wait, you can't read this because you'd rather live in a bubble than talk to someone who (I assume) didn't agree with you in the past. That's what ignorance gets you lol

No -- it's not that you didn't agree with me. I'm not that closed-minded. I don't recall exactly why I chose to block you and live in my "bubble," but it was definitely because something you wrote offended me in the past. Oh, your assumption about me makes you look pretty ignorant, too.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

@cswood said:

Saw it. It was okay. It suffers a lot in the second half. The movie is waaaaaay too long. This should have been 2 hours max. I also didn't like the fact the soldiers are actively stealing the gold as "reparations" instead of just having them find it. It makes them look like thieves.

And although Delroy Lindo as Paul is the most complex character in the movie, using him as an anti-Trump soundboard got annoying after a while. It's like a girl who won't shut up about her ex who dumped her. He even wears a maga hat for most of the movie and then the final villain wears the hat. Why? He's not even American. That hat was dirty and sweaty, why would he put it on?

I don't know why I'm responding to your other post after you arbitrarily insulted me, but anyway, to my best judgement, Desroche wears the MAGA hat because it was a way of flaunting victory over dead Paul. Paul had insulted Desroche and the rest of the French early on in the film, stating that the French needed the U.S. to save them in an earlier war. Desroche was still salty over that, so he took Paul's hat and sported it.

@znexyish said:

No no discussion yet. Should there be ? What the hell is a "joint"? Another movie about Vietnam how exciting. Soldiers looking for treasure like in "Three Kings" and way before that in "Kelly's Heroes" ? Let the discussing begin.

Without going into spoilers there's not much to discuss. Chadwick Boseman was really good but he's only in it for like 15 minutes. The changing aspect ratios were kind of distracting and gimmicky. It was just okay, nothing special, probably would have been better if it were under 2 hours.

@CelluloidFan said:

@cswood said:

Hey I know how to help you-- oh wait, you can't read this because you'd rather live in a bubble than talk to someone who (I assume) didn't agree with you in the past. That's what ignorance gets you lol

No -- it's not that you didn't agree with me. I'm not that closed-minded. I don't recall exactly why I chose to block you and live in my "bubble," but it was definitely because something you wrote offended me in the past. Oh, your assumption about me makes you look pretty ignorant, too.

I don't see the point in blocking anyone unless they're threatening personal harm on you (which I've never done). I don't even remember your user name so you're not one of the usual people I butt heads with on here. If someone is blocking me it's usually because I don't share their opinion and won't back down to their strawman attacks. You can't learn from others if you shut down means of communication, but a lot of people on the internet aren't interested in debating and learning, they just want to win, and when they can't they take their ball and go home (ie hit the block button).

@CelluloidFan said:

SPOILERS AHEAD.

@cswood said:

Saw it. It was okay. It suffers a lot in the second half. The movie is waaaaaay too long. This should have been 2 hours max. I also didn't like the fact the soldiers are actively stealing the gold as "reparations" instead of just having them find it. It makes them look like thieves.

And although Delroy Lindo as Paul is the most complex character in the movie, using him as an anti-Trump soundboard got annoying after a while. It's like a girl who won't shut up about her ex who dumped her. He even wears a maga hat for most of the movie and then the final villain wears the hat. Why? He's not even American. That hat was dirty and sweaty, why would he put it on?

I don't know why I'm responding to your other post after you arbitrarily insulted me, but anyway, to my best judgement, Desroche wears the MAGA hat because it was a way of flaunting victory over dead Paul. Paul had insulted Desroche and the rest of the French early on in the film, stating that the French needed the U.S. to save them in an earlier war. Desroche was still salty over that, so he took Paul's hat and sported it.

Hey you call it an insult I call it helpful advice. But you can see my posts now so let's discuss.

The point you made makes sense for the scene, although the "victory" over Paul wasn't that impressive since he basically sacrificed himself. He didn't even put up a real fight which I found disappointing. If he wanted to atone for accidentally killing Norman he should have died saving one of the other guys or his son. I was hoping maybe he would have stepped on a land mine, let the bad guys surround him, and then blew them all up along with himself.

But yeah, the whole maga hat thing felt very forced to me. I mean it's 2020, every other movie has to let us know its politics lest they be canceled by the mob, but it really seemed to hamstring the movie. I think you could have Paul be a shell shocked solider suffering from the guilt of accidentally killing his friend without constantly reminding us who he voted for. It would be like if in The Expendables movies Stallone constantly dunked on Obama and the villains were all Obama voters, or if Clint Eastwood's later movies revolved around evil Democrats. Movies should be entertaining not a soapbox for the filmmaker's political views.

And no I'm not a Trump supporter, I'm pretty center-left, I'm just getting sick of every. single. thing. telling me about how bad Orange Man is or writers telling us the villains in their TV show/movie are Trump stand-ins. It takes me right out of the show every time.

@znexyish said:

No no discussion yet. Should there be ? What the hell is a "joint"?

Spike Lee refers to the films he directs as "joints"....

@cswood said:

@znexyish said:

No no discussion yet. Should there be ? What the hell is a "joint"? Another movie about Vietnam how exciting. Soldiers looking for treasure like in "Three Kings" and way before that in "Kelly's Heroes" ? Let the discussing begin.

Without going into spoilers there's not much to discuss. Chadwick Boseman was really good but he's only in it for like 15 minutes. The changing aspect ratios were kind of distracting and gimmicky. It was just okay, nothing special, probably would have been better if it were under 2 hours.

@CelluloidFan said:

@cswood said:

Hey I know how to help you-- oh wait, you can't read this because you'd rather live in a bubble than talk to someone who (I assume) didn't agree with you in the past. That's what ignorance gets you lol

No -- it's not that you didn't agree with me. I'm not that closed-minded. I don't recall exactly why I chose to block you and live in my "bubble," but it was definitely because something you wrote offended me in the past. Oh, your assumption about me makes you look pretty ignorant, too.

I don't see the point in blocking anyone unless they're threatening personal harm on you (which I've never done). I don't even remember your user name so you're not one of the usual people I butt heads with on here. If someone is blocking me it's usually because I don't share their opinion and won't back down to their strawman attacks. You can't learn from others if you shut down means of communication, but a lot of people on the internet aren't interested in debating and learning, they just want to win, and when they can't they take their ball and go home (ie hit the block button).

@CelluloidFan said:

SPOILERS AHEAD.

@cswood said:

Saw it. It was okay. It suffers a lot in the second half. The movie is waaaaaay too long. This should have been 2 hours max. I also didn't like the fact the soldiers are actively stealing the gold as "reparations" instead of just having them find it. It makes them look like thieves.

And although Delroy Lindo as Paul is the most complex character in the movie, using him as an anti-Trump soundboard got annoying after a while. It's like a girl who won't shut up about her ex who dumped her. He even wears a maga hat for most of the movie and then the final villain wears the hat. Why? He's not even American. That hat was dirty and sweaty, why would he put it on?

I don't know why I'm responding to your other post after you arbitrarily insulted me, but anyway, to my best judgement, Desroche wears the MAGA hat because it was a way of flaunting victory over dead Paul. Paul had insulted Desroche and the rest of the French early on in the film, stating that the French needed the U.S. to save them in an earlier war. Desroche was still salty over that, so he took Paul's hat and sported it.

Hey you call it an insult I call it helpful advice. But you can see my posts now so let's discuss.

The point you made makes sense for the scene, although the "victory" over Paul wasn't that impressive since he basically sacrificed himself. He didn't even put up a real fight which I found disappointing. If he wanted to atone for accidentally killing Norman he should have died saving one of the other guys or his son. I was hoping maybe he would have stepped on a land mine, let the bad guys surround him, and then blew them all up along with himself.

But yeah, the whole maga hat thing felt very forced to me. I mean it's 2020, every other movie has to let us know its politics lest they be canceled by the mob, but it really seemed to hamstring the movie. I think you could have Paul be a shell shocked solider suffering from the guilt of accidentally killing his friend without constantly reminding us who he voted for. It would be like if in The Expendables movies Stallone constantly dunked on Obama and the villains were all Obama voters, or if Clint Eastwood's later movies revolved around evil Democrats. Movies should be entertaining not a soapbox for the filmmaker's political views.

And no I'm not a Trump supporter, I'm pretty center-left, I'm just getting sick of every. single. thing. telling me about how bad Orange Man is or writers telling us the villains in their TV show/movie are Trump stand-ins. It takes me right out of the show every time.

I loved it when the one Vietnamese guy (I forgot his name) sarcastically said, "Make America great again?" and kind of snapped and attacked Paul. I guess I agree with you on everybody stating their politics on Trump, but I liked how this movie did it. I wish some folks would muster some energy toward making sure that the Russians don't interfere with our election this year... I'm not saying Mr. Lee should do this, but that seems like a very worthwhile use of energy to me.

SPOILER AHEAD.

@cswood said:

@znexyish said:

No no discussion yet. Should there be ? What the hell is a "joint"? Another movie about Vietnam how exciting. Soldiers looking for treasure like in "Three Kings" and way before that in "Kelly's Heroes" ? Let the discussing begin.

Without going into spoilers there's not much to discuss. Chadwick Boseman was really good but he's only in it for like 15 minutes. The changing aspect ratios were kind of distracting and gimmicky. It was just okay, nothing special, probably would have been better if it were under 2 hours.

Yea, Chadwick was good in it; his character was very interesting, for sure. I really dug the changing aspect ratios -- they helped get me into the movie's going into flashback mode and seemed novel.

@CelluloidFan said:

@cswood said:

Hey I know how to help you-- oh wait, you can't read this because you'd rather live in a bubble than talk to someone who (I assume) didn't agree with you in the past. That's what ignorance gets you lol

No -- it's not that you didn't agree with me. I'm not that closed-minded. I don't recall exactly why I chose to block you and live in my "bubble," but it was definitely because something you wrote offended me in the past. Oh, your assumption about me makes you look pretty ignorant, too.

I don't see the point in blocking anyone unless they're threatening personal harm on you (which I've never done). I don't even remember your user name so you're not one of the usual people I butt heads with on here. If someone is blocking me it's usually because I don't share their opinion and won't back down to their strawman attacks. You can't learn from others if you shut down means of communication, but a lot of people on the internet aren't interested in debating and learning, they just want to win, and when they can't they take their ball and go home (ie hit the block button).

I don't come here to "butt heads" with anyone. I come here to exchange views and possibly help folks. I'm not sure why you come here. Whatever you wrote way back when I blocked you offended me -- but you don't remember that. You just make up shit as to why you figure I blocked you that isn't true. Anyway....

Many people (including myself) who joined TMDb in Feb. through early-June of 2017 blocked various (in some cases several) message board users, either temporarily or indefinitely, as that's when there was General Chat, that was decidedly quite the melee. All TMDb message boards users were brand-new here back then, as were the message boards themselves. So there was a lot of volatility for a while; anyone could have blocked anyone for any understandable reason.

It's now June 2020 and bygones should be bygones (insert handshake here) - particularly when neither party even remembers one another from back then.

Indeed— consider this my olive branch to Ask Me.

Here's a little more... the setting of this film is Vietnam, but one of the films that bears the biggest influence on it is John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in which 3 guys go searching in Mexico for gold... With all of the greed and distrust between folks in this, Huston's movie is what I was reminded of... however, there's so much going on here that I needed to see it again to recall it.

"We don't need no stinkin' badges"... the line that one of the bad guys references... I think that's from Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy....