Highest 2 Lowest

Worst series of acting jobs imaginable. How can a film with Denzel and Jeffrey Wright have such absolutely awful scenes? The story was one thing, but completely lost in the terrible dialogue.

Dean Winters character made my stomach turn. So bad, so awful. A man who has given us the world's most ridiculous and fantastic insurance commercials the last decade, to then be cast in this movie, as the most unbelievable, laughable, terrible cop... what are we doing?

Nearly turned it off 5 times but held on for hope the greatest actor in the last 30 years (Denzel) would somehow save it. That hope got me to the end but left me so disappointed in the previous 2 hours.

By the end, I was left with reflection: was Spike Lee trying to make a comedy while trying to make a thriller? Because again, the acting was that painful.

I feel like the only reason Denzel accepted this script is because it's a Spike Lee joint. I felt like the soundtrack was unused/left over music from one of Spikes unreleased films from the 90's. The cuts are messy. Not the worst film but I always debate my cousin about who has the better filmography Denzel or Will Smith...he finally has a poor film to use against me.

Spike Lee movies are always a hit or miss with me. Loved his first, She's gotta have it, Malcolm X (too long), Do the Right Thing (too long), but I never got past the few other movies I saw. IMO the scoring of his movies is atrocious. And he seems to stretch out the scenes filled with dialog too long to the point you want to say "cut" or edit. And that's what I felt watching this "Apple Studio" movie. Spike in an interview said Apple was the only studio that would finance it. It's going straight to stream in about two weeks.

The acting is subpar and his close-ups of Denzel pondering decisions are laughable. Most of the actors are TV actors so that explains it the subpar-ness.

The movie perks up when the ransom drop takes place, but even then you wonder - WHAT the H? The money bag is passed from moto biker to moto biker and the police lose the actual money bag. From my understanding when there's a kidnapping and ransom of a high-powered executive like David King, the FBI takes the lead. Did Spike NOT do his home work?

Denzel is in every scene and that can be a bit too much. I wished to see more of the police work to find the kidnapper, but that falls to Denzel and his chauffeur. Which wouldn't happen in real life. An executive of a record company wouldn't go on the hunt himself. IMO. He would have security do it. Which was also a head-scratcher. The music executive did not have a bodyguard. Even JayZ has a bodyguard.

If you have Apple TV, I would recommend you wait for Highest2Lowest, it will be streaming in a week.

I guess the name of the movie Highest 2 Lowest is a pun on how "good" the movie is, a little high (Denzel and Jeffery's dramatic acting) and A LOT of LOWS (the entire script and poor acting from most of the cast). After watching the original movie High and Low by Akira Kurosawa I was intrigued to check out this remake by Spike Lee but gotta say I'm very disappointed in how far this movie falls short of Kurosawa's classic. In all honesty I don't believe Spike was the right person to even direct such a remake and instead I believe this movie should've been directed by someone like Scorsese who would've made the film the action thriller it should've been instead of this confusing mess that Spike Lee made. I'll rate this movie a 5 out of 10 due to the simple fact that the script is horrible despite Denzel Washington and Jeffery Wright carrying the movie, everyone else seemed like rookie actors who made the movie feel like a made for BET or Lifetime movie. I also have no idea why this movie went over 2 hours, lol I felt compelled to walk out the theater from being so underwhelmed for how cringeworthy the last 10 - 20 minutes of this movie became. I actually would've been more favorable towards this movie had it been shorter, like probably giving this a 6/10 but it just went on for far too long and quickly became a trainwreck to watch, it seemed as if Spike didn't even know how he wanted to end the movie so instead he prolonged it with unnecessary scenes. I believe this movie should've been released directly on Apple TV instead of having a short theatrical run.

I don't know if the intention was to make this movie feel like a soap opera, but unfortunately that's exactly how it played out. The pacing was uneven, the dialogue felt forced, and the story lacked real depth. The characters came across as flat and unconvincing, which left me very disappointed overall.