Highest 2 Lowest

Worth a watch especially if you're African American. A lot of the jokes and writing are geared towards our specific culture and will be more relatable/relevant to us. I appreciated the message at the end of the film about modern day rap music and rap culture. Mostly very strong cast except for Pam, if I'm being honest she was the only weak link and the editing didn't do her any favors. Speaking of editing the editing could have been much better, the writing could have been way better he needed a team of people to review his script, star directors like spike lee get way too much creative freedom and aren't held accountable enough for subpar work in my opinion. ASAP Rocky did a beautiful job he had a very complex and real character that could have easily fallen into a stereotypical cliched performance but he brought a lot of humanity to it. Cinematography was okay. Production design looked very VFX even the view from the penthouse looked like a iPad screen. Denzel did what he was supposed to do. He's a always a joy to watch but he deserved a better script and production quality. Overall not bad. But I wouldn't recommend paying money for it in theatres. Wait till it streams.

If you're a big fan of spike lee, you'll probably love it. Maybe again you'll probably be disappointed. In my opinion, wasn't bad but it could've been great. It felt kinda dragged, overall you got Denzel, asap rocky did solid.

You can see asap was very into his lines, the scenes between him and Denzel were good.

Catch it at home and have a sit back on the couch with some popcorn and pizza and enjoy. It's in select theaters, feel free to try to catch it otherwise it'll be available to stream in 2 weeks.

OK, I ended up going to see this one today. The film got a limited theatrical release, but my local theater fortunately showed it.

I didn't understand why the film got such a limited release, given the star power (e.g. Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Jeffrey Wright, A$ap Rocky, Cassidy from Law & Order, and even Rick Fox). Having watched the movie, I now have a better sense of why they chose a limited release. The movie's plot, involving a ransom, suggests an action-packed/suspense/edge-of-your-seat thriller. In truth, the movie is really a slow-burn adult drama. It's not for everyone. But though some parts had me a bit bored, I think, in the end, that I liked the movie overall

THE GOOD = The movie has the look and feel of a Spike Lee film, which I like (I'm a fan of his work). There's good acting by some of the cast members, especially Denzel Washington. Going into this movie, I figured his character would be an unlikable richboy diva, based on the synopsis. But his character is intelligent, relatively modest, and likable ... A$ap Rocky made me cringe, but I think that's by design. I found him convincing for the role that he plays. The scene where Denzel and A$ap Rocky first meet each other is clearly the best scene in the movie, with some great dialogue (to give any details would be to spoil it). The movie has thoughtful messaging about class, commercialization, music, and black culture.

But the movie has flaws - as I said, the movie is more of a slow-burn adult drama more than an action or suspense. From the time when Denzel gets the call about the ransom to the time of the Puerto Rico day parade scene, the movie gets in a bit of a dry stretch, with so many long-winded conversations ... the friendship between Denzel and Jeffrey Wright could have been fleshed out a bit more, considering what happens ... there's a huge disconsonance between A$ap Rocky's low-IQ street thug character and the sophisticated, Ocean's Eleven scheme that he supposedly performs during the Puerto Rico day parade ... the score gets grating on a few occasions ... the acting by Denzel's wife is bad (and she looks a tad too young for him)

7.5/10.

I loved seeing Spike Lee and Denzel Washington teaming up again for a new film. From start to finish, though, the movie felt scattered-jumping around with no clear plot or objective. As expected, Denzel did his thing and really carried it. A$AP Rocky wasn't bad, and Ilfenesh Hadera held her own, but overall the film was just... okay. At times, it definitely gave off Godfather of Harlem vibes, and it was New York through and through from beginning to end.

Movie Grade:C-/C.

This seems to be the first Spike Lee movie I have bothered to see in the cinema for a while. Because it seemed like one of his bigger productions and didn't seem like it was going to bash you over the head with a message about racism. Because the problem with most black American movies is they tend to be either hood movies or go down the racism is a bad thing trope. Spike has many of these under his belt. This actually seemed like a movie in which race didn't matter.

Now this is apparently based off another book and movie but not ones Id come across which was a good thing. No judging this based off other media.

What this is, is a story about a record label boss who ends up being extorted through a kidnapping plot. Not very Spike but actually quite engaging. There's even a few decent action scenes thrown in. But being a Spike movie there are the usual nods to black culture and social commentary style rants. And music.

What stops this from being a great film as opposed to a good one is it's just fat too long. If it ended 30 mins earlier than it does most people would have been happy. But instead there's two additional music scenes that really add nothing. It's also a fairly obvious plot.

Spikes best movies were his earliest ones even if his newer movies are technically better. But they certainly don't carry the same weight. Must be the fact the current culture simply isn't as good as it was in the 80s.