Highest 2 Lowest

Denzell Washington is a very successful music producer with, as he calls it, "The best ears in the business". He sold off a piece of his corporation a few years back and lives an opulent lifestyle. But the changed economics of the music business, a company sniffing around to buy the company from under him, and a desire to be more of a producer than a businessman have worn on him. He arranges for a loan to buy a block of shares that will give him control. And then his son is kidnapped.

Many of you will recognize this as a remake of Kurosawa's Tengoku to jigoku aka High and Low. As a result, the first big plot twist did not surprise me. What did surprise me was Spike Lee's expansion, not only of the divide between the highest and lowest wealth in the movie -- although that was by making Washington so very rich -- as the expansion of the ending. Several of Kurosawa's movies seem to end abruptly to me, pointlessly so: an ending that shocks rather than concludes. That is, undoubtedly, a cultural difference. But Lee comes down on my side, and with equally stern cultural self-criticism. In doing so, he demonstrates this is a sturdy story, both in terms of its thriller/kidnapping plot but in terms of how societies view art, money, and privilege.

The movie is one of the best ive watched in a long time ago the actors did not disappoint me the vibe was musical energetic and a lot of action.spoke lee as always is a legend with the great actors denzel Washington and his big rôle in the movie and lets not forget the performance of Asap rocky which is dope.

In what marks Denzel Washington and Spike Lee's fifth collaboration since the nineties comes in a way a grand homage to the highlights of both men's careers. A remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1963; thriller "High To Low" (and Denzel's second Kurosawa adaptation if you count his role in "The Magnificent Seven," a remake of a remake of "The Seven Samurai"), Lee allows Washington to strut as a Manhattan music mogul in a way that reminds one of his Frank Lucas in "American Gangster" until the son of his chauffeur (the superbly underplaying and great patter partner Jeffrey Wright) is kidnapped by a desperate ransomer (a briefly-on-break from impregnating Rhianna A$AP ROCKY). Washington and Lee having spent so much of their professional lives together just move in perfect sync together as Lee shoots in a quick urban groove, with echoes of his love letters to New York in "Girl 6," "He Got Game" and "25th Hour." Denzel of course as one of the greatest actors alive can move from proud to pleading in the blink of an eye, and Lee's masterful cinematic vocabulary carries him through every beat perfectly. With able support from great newcomers Ilfenesh Hadera and Elijah Wright, one hopes this doesn't mark the last time these two team-up; they just wake up an almost hopelessly corporate cinema like no one else.

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.

I have always been a Spike Lee fan. I was interested in this movie since I saw the original Japanese film. This movie was similar to the original but just in a modern iteration. Despite the minimal negative reviews this is still an entertaining film. The art work in the film and the soundtrack are a must see/ hear!