After watching Highest 2 Lowest I think its a common thing to say many, including myself are pretty disappointed with what Spike Lee delivered here, either you knew or not this is a remake from a very old Japanese movie from 1963, the name of the movie itself feels like a pun on how good it actually turned out to be, a little high with Denzel and Jeffrey Wright's dramatic performances but a whole lot of lows with everything else. This is Spike Lee's 24th feature and his first movie in five years, you would think after such a long break he would come back with something special but instead we get this confusing mess that doesn't know if it wants to be an action thriller or some kind of melodrama. The movie stars Denzel Washington as David King, a very wealthy music kingpin who gets caught up in a kidnapping situation that turns into a moral dilemma and the confusion part felt stupid to be honest, Jeffrey Wright plays his childhood friend and driver whose son gets taken by mistake instead of King's son. The whole situation felt over dramatic from Jeffrey Wright, I have to say this is not his best performance neither Denzel Washington, all this happening on a modern New York with a hip hop backdrop but the truth is we only get a single hip hop song that "made" impact with ASAP Rocky, it all sounds cool on paper but the execution falls nose first in so many ways, the hole time I was watching the movie bugs me this could have been a more intense crime thriller it needed to be, instead Spike tries to make it this a movie about making big moves in the music industry with David buying back his label, then going into the drama aspect with the kidnapping to close with an action thriller with a big chunk of Salsa music in it, seriously WTF.
Rottentomatoes Rating
The biggest problem with this movie is definitely the script because the dialogue feels amateurish and the pacing is all over the place, a good storytelling needs the foot half way throttle for the most part and then know when to push but this movie was just big ups and downs. You spend the first 40 minutes basically watching people argue in nice apartments while this really loud orchestral background sound plays over everything, I hate it so much specially with all the police cars that appear out of no where like its the president coming in with the Secret Service, then suddenly the movie remembers its supposed to be a thriller and moves outside into the streets of New York. When Denzel's character David King has to decide whether to pay ransom for his friend's son instead of his own, comes in the moral aspect of such decision that should feel crushing but instead it feels like checking boxes because we know exactly what he is going to do, he just doesnt want to be smack down by social media, hilarious that social media is the fact why he decides to pay. The supporting cast is mostly terrible too, his wife played by Ilfenesh Hadera who I like as an actress from "Godfather of Harlem", she is supposed to be this supportive partner but she talks like she is reading cue cards and was on the same boat of not paying at first when you would expect the wife to be more sensitive. The son character is equally flat and talk to me about the Kamala poster in his room?, he is supposed to be King's successor music executive with big personality but he mumbles through every scene like he doesn't want to be there, like he doesnt want to be or do anything his father tells him. To kinda bring this rant to an end, the fucking detectives, every single one of them are the worst part of this movie, been so rude and unprofessional and some times abusing people like Wright's character Paul.
The only thing that really works in this movie is when Denzel and Jeffrey Wright are on screen together, these two have incredible chemistry and you can see why they are considered among the best actors working today. Wright especially brings so much impact to his role as this loyal friend who had a tough past but still believes in King, when he asks for help saving his son you can feel the desperation and years of friendship behind it and its a though decision because you can be grateful but that doesnt make you someone's slave for ever same goes back, its not easy to ask for such sum of money, attach to this the great scene where King tells him straight up that he won't be able to pay back the 17.5 million and Wright's character just accepts it because what choice does he have, that conversation felt real and shows how bad the rest of the movie is. The other single good moment is when ASAP Rocky shows up on screen as the rapper / kidnapper, in the studio with his gun on his waist simply rapping because he loves it and already made 17.5 M without going public, his confrontation with Denzel turns into this improvised rap battle that actually has energy and excitement. Rocky holds his own grudge against Denzel which is impressive because most of the other actors in this movie get completely overwhelmed, it wouldnt be strange if this wasnt fully scripted because it has life to it unlike the rest of the movie's dialogue, but even this great moment cant save the rest of the movie, aside from the music video they added that felt out of place.
What really frustrates me about Highest 2 Lowest is how it wastes so many opportunities to say something interesting about wealth, class and morality in todays world, I thought this would be a movie about how harsh the music industry is. The movie is over two hours long which is completely unnecessary, there are multiple scenes that could have been cut entirely without losing anything important to the plot. The kidnapping scheme itself makes no sense either, this elaborate plan involving multiple people and perfect timing but we are supposed to believe it was organized by some amateur rapper with no resources, it feels like something out of a comic book movie but played completely straight. The ending drags on forever with this singing audition scene that serves no purpose except to add to the runtime, also considering this is the girl King's son is after, by that point I was asking for this movie to be over fast, didnt want to fast forward. Spike Lee has made some incredible movies over the years but this feels like he was just going through the motions and random ideas, this is a very bad remake.
I really wanted to love this movie because I'm a huge fan of Denzel Washington, but Highest 2 Lowest just doesn't deliver on any level except for very few moments of greatness. After watching the movie and trying to understand why it failed, I find out that this is a remake and the original High and Low is considered one of director Akira Kurosawa's best movies because of its tight storytelling and moral complexity, this remake loses all of that in favor of flashy camera moves and loud music. I doubt real fans of Denzel or Wright work would find this movie great, its hard to recommend sitting through over two hours of mostly a mediocre movie for a handful of good scenes. The movie should have been released straight to streaming instead of getting a theatrical release, it feels more like a streaming movie that you might watch on a lazy Sunday but forget about it after. I'm giving this a 6 out of 10 purely because of Denzel and Jeffrey Wright's performances, everyone else feels like they are in a made for television movie that somehow got a big budget that should have been at least 30 minutes shorter to have any real impact.
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