Highest 2 Lowest

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington don't miss a beat in Lee's new film Highest 2 Lowest, taking Kurosawa's original film of the same name and running it straight up into Noo Yawk City. With this film, which keeps the action flowing from start to finish, Lee is unabashedly unreserved about his adoration for the greatest city in the world. In ways both overt and subtle, Lee transports the audience into 'Spike's World', weaving his personal preferences in art, music and, of course, his loyalty to the NY Yankees, with engrossing, non-stop action and a dash of humor.

This is 1000% Lee's love song to New York City. From the dazzling beauty of the NYC skyline to the grit of a Bronx tenement, Lee puts his vision on the screen. Matthew Libatique, Lee's Director of Photography, gives us a melange of visual qualities within the film. From top-of-the-line digital to the graininess of 8MM, again, highest to lowest, the artistry here is unmistakeable. Highest 2 Lowest's basic premise, the kidnapping of a wealthy man's son, is Mr. Lee's fifth collaboration with Mr. Washington, and it hits every note perfectly.

Paintings and portraits from Spike's personal collection, including Kehinde Wiley's 'Investiture of Bishop Harold as the Duke of Franconia', the depiction of a black man wearing a Brooklyn Dodger's number 42 jersey, Jackie Robinson's number, find pride of place on the walls of music mogul David King's (Denzel Washington) multi-million dollar DUMBO duplex. DUMBO, in case you're wondering, is Down Under The Manhattan Bridge Overpass, and is currently the most affluent part of Brooklyn. You can take Spike out of Brooklyn, but you'll never take Brooklyn out of Spike. The two are forever intertwined in Lee's filmography.

Other works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Patrick Martinez, Radcliff Bailey, even a Brooklyn Dodger's scoreboard, pieces that have been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, some of which are certainly from Lee's own home, decorate the office and home of King, his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and their son Trey (Aubrey Joseph).

King is in the middle of refinancing a multi-million dollar deal for his record company, Stackin' Hits. Pam is on the Board of various high-end charities that promote emerging Black artists. Trey believes himself to be an up and coming talent scout. Soon after dropping Trey off for summer basketball camp at LIU's downtown Brooklyn campus, and after successfully negotiating his business deal, King returns home in his Rolls Royce, chauffered by his oldest friend, Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright). Paul served time in prison, but King, believing strongly in second chances, which is a major theme in the film, has employed Christopher since his release. King is also godfather to Paul's son, Kyle (Elijah Wright). Kyle and Trey are as close as blood brothers, attending the LIU basketball camp together.

After arriving home, King receives a phonecall from a man telling him that his son, Kyle, has been kidnapped, and the 'king's ransom' is $17.5 million. The plot quickly thickens when we learn that godson Kyle is also missing and in great danger. King and some NYPD detectives attempt to follow their leads, taking us for a ride on the NYC subway systems Number 4 and 6 trains.

From the exuberance of cheering fans en route to a game at Yankee Stadium, through a Puerto Rican Day Festival featuring Brooklyn natives Rosie Perez, Anthony Ramos (yes, that's a holy crap moment right there) and Latin music legend, pianist, bandleader and Grammy winner Eddie Palmieri, the film is a celebration of the chaos, energy and diversity that make up this amazing city and all its boroughs. On a side note, Palmieri, a Harlem native, passed away just last week at the age of 88.

Lee even takes a moment to pay homage to A24, the distributor of Highest 2 Lowest. Lee and the crew must have had a blast making this film. As you watch Denzel seamlessly switch vernaculars from business mogul to street slang, depending on his audience and what he's trying to accomplish, you know you're watching a master at work. So many Kings brought to you in the county of Kings, from a man who is still a King of cinema.

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.

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.

Expected more from Spike Lee. Very misfitting score that belonged in a Star Wars type film. We don't need loud distracting music over every scene. The double edited shots were also distracting and over done. Bad acting from many of the supporting cast. Slow start, could have easily tightened the edit. This film didn't seem to know what it was. No clear vision. A little preachy. And a kind of dull story line with no twist!

This was a "we made it" film. Spike Lee, Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright are far from needing to prove their filmmaking and acting chops, so this was a love letter to New York, Brooklyn and Black art. It's a timely representation of Black men building from the ground up, growing together and being a bridge to the young men (A$AP Rocky) who aspire to become them. The plot fell flat for me, because more could've been done with the characters, especially Jeffrey Wright's role. I watched and became more engrossed in the art collection than the story itself.