Highest 2 Lowest

It's difficult to take this movie in, or take it seriously. Ironically about a music mogul, Spike uses a continuous, distracting, misaligned, wildly inappropriate, cheesy score by Lawrence Manchester. The opening track was pure cringe. Hard to imagine what Spike could've been attempting beyond irony.

I went into this film with high expectations, especially since it's a Spike Lee project starring Denzel Washington. Unfortunately, Highest 2 Lowest left me disappointed. The acting felt superficial and unconvincing, as if the performances were more about style than substance. For a story that's supposed to explore deep moral conflicts, the characters never really came alive for me.

Visually, the movie has its moments - colorful, energetic shots and a strong New York vibe - but that doesn't make up for the weak emotional core. The pacing was uneven, and instead of being drawn into the drama, I often felt detached, watching a performance rather than being immersed in the story.

Overall, it's a film with big names and bold visuals, but little depth. For me, it was more style than heart, and I walked away feeling underwhelmed.

⭐ Rating: 2/5.

A bit disappointed.

The scoring was a supplice.

What the f. Is those choices of music for the pursuits scenes. The music while the bag pursuit is unbearable and the one while running after the rapper is so faded.

To my mind, it's slowing the scenes.

Fortunately, the soundtrack is better sometimes.

There's a lot of audio cliché.

The movie should have been cutted by 30 minutes : "longest 2 shortest"

An interesting concept with solid acting and a well paced execution. It's not Denzel Washington's best film, but it's still a good one.

Naturally, with the music industry being core to the film, the incidental music is varied and good. However, the background music is simply terrible, sometimes sounding like a schlocky drama and other times like a cheap soap opera and in several scenes, it totally broke the mood. It shows the value of having a good background track and this film simply doesn't.

Spike Lee has always been the perfect definition of a hit or miss as he has made some great movies like Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, She's Gotta Have It, Jungle Fever, and so on. At the same time, he has made some pretty awful movies, particular Oldboy (2013) and Miracle at St. Anna. With his latest film, based on a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's classic "High and Low", it falls quite flat and rough.

For starters, there are some nice camerawork that helps presents the atmosphere and environment. Creating the vibe and energy of the city of New York. Lee does offer some fresh themes and concepts about it's characters, writing, and the political aspects, however it all feels confused, misplaced, and messy. The writing feels as if this new reinterpretation didn't offer anything special or interesting to the original and book, as if Lee confuses with what he wants to present and display. Alongside with some laughable bad dialogue, the performances are a mix bag. Denzel Washington does provide his best as his energy and personality is good. However some of the other performances are honestly pretty bad, particularly Ilfenesh Hadera. Almost as if the performances are TV levels of acting or being intentionally awful.

The production designs and structure feels cheap and dated, almost as if the movie is having a Hallmark and Lifetime approach. The musical score is one of the worst aspects about this movie as it's presentation, sounding, and how the music is used is all over the place, messy, and atrocious. Regarding pacing, it drags, as the pacing remains uneven and it's first and second act really struggles. However, around it's third act, it does pick up with some interesting and good thrilling moments.

I'm honestly kind of surprised with the positive reviews because audiences and critics have been raving this reinterpretation, however I found it to be tedious and frustrating. I do appreciate it isn't as disgraceful as Lee's remake of "Oldboy" (which I'm glad to hear he has since disowned the movie). However, no matter what, it's pretty clear that it's best to stay away from remaking classics because it ain't worth it.