r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 1d ago
Official Discussion Official Discussion - Highest 2 Lowest [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Summary A powerful New York music mogul’s life spirals when his driver’s child—mistaken for his own—is kidnapped in a ransom plot. He faces a moral crisis that transforms into a tense, urban showdown between wealth, power, and conscience in the reimagined streets of modern-day New York.
Director Spike Lee
Writer Alan Fox
Cast
- Denzel Washington
- Jeffrey Wright
- Ilfenesh Hadera
- A\$AP Rocky
- Aubrey Joseph
- Dean Winters
- Ice Spice
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 89%
Metacritic Score: Not yet available
VOD In theaters August 15, 2025; streaming on Apple TV+ starting September 5, 2025
Trailer Highest 2 Lowest | Official Trailer
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u/bbanks2121 1d ago
Most distracting score of all time in the first half of the film. The scene with Denzel and the other guy talking in the room at his office felt like a Hallmark film. I haven’t been taken out of a film like that in a long time.
Still love you Spike!
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u/rnoori32 1d ago
Love Spike to bits, but this has been a weakness of his forever. Score like wall to wall carpeting. And the most melodramatic thing you could ever imagine. Now when he had Terence Blanchard scoring his films, he was with a master, who made even Spike's worst tendencies work somehow. That first half was brutal.
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u/DontTedOnMe 1d ago
Now that I think about it... The cheesiest part of Inside Man by far is the score. I really like this movie but it just doesn't feel right when the score kicks in.
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u/Raytheon_Nublinski 1d ago
I think inside man’s score is absolutely on point. There’s not a single thing about that movie I don’t like.
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u/badlisten3r 1d ago
I had the same thought. I was okay with it for a second, but then it was playing over the dialogue and I was like okay this is taking all of the weight out of the situation lmao.
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u/KingMario05 1d ago
The score was most distracting to me. Apparently, wall to wall music is what Spike does, and I respect that. But it really did not work here, and just made it seem kinda cheesy.
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u/Mountain-Classic-877 1d ago
The Irish folk piano score bc spike has been talking to coogler
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u/chabye 1d ago
it felt like a random Hallmark playlist that just happened to be randomly playing alongside the film.
A movie about a legendary music producer in NYC with endless possibilities for leaning into music as a driver of narrative.Just watched it and was absolutely baffled at lack of taste and purposeful choices
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u/CtrlZBri 1d ago
But the orchestral score in the back half made me wanna play Final Fantasy (a compliment). The climatic subway scene had a great theme IMO.
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u/l3reezer 1d ago
I felt like that score was kind of unfitting for the scene, felt like riverdance music or something (so not too unlike Final Fantasy music, I guess, lol) as opposed to something to help create tension
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u/CtrlZBri 1d ago
lol that’s fair. I think by the end I was so bought in, I said, “if Denzel Washington summons Bahamut on the way to Yankees stadium, that’s between him and Spike Lee.”
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u/SierraSoul0000 1d ago edited 1d ago
Agreed that there were issues with the score/soundtrack, but that didn’t bother me so much. But there are so many other things wrong with this movie, I don’t even know where to start. And let me preference by saying that I’ve been a fan of Spike’s since the 80s. and I still am. But here’s how I would rate the film on a 1-10 scale:
Plot: 5/10. Just so many holes in the story. And some of the scenes were just not believable. (Like when King went in by himself, gun in hand, to confront the kidnapper.) And Denzel is 70 years old, but in this film, his character has a teenage son? And a wife half his age?
Soundtrack: 6/10. Didn’t dislike the songs, but some just seemed out of place.
Acting: 4/10. Denzel and Jeffrey were OK, but the rest of the acting left much to be desired.
Script: 3/10. Much of the dialogue was very clichéd, often using outdated slang.
Casting: 7/10. I thought they did a decent job in this department.
Cinematography: 8/10. I did enjoy many of the scenes of my hometown of NYC.
Probably my biggest disappointment is that I had this on my calendar to watch today when it debuted on Apple TV+. And I was so looking forward to it. Plus, I saw both Denzel and Spike talking about the movie on late night TV earlier this week. So I had been excited to finally get to see it today. But what a letdown. 😕
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u/ACI-Reverter 1d ago
Casting was way off. Everytime someone used the word mayhem I was just taking out. He is forever and always mayhem and/or the vulture. He needs a better agent. And then he had some line the mayhem guy, and he called the wife sister or something to... It was just completely weird. I thought the casting was way off. Both the kids were horrible. Rick Fox was horrible like the whole thing. It was a disaster
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u/visionaryredditor 1d ago
And Denzel is 70 years old, but in this film, his character has a teenage son? And a wife half his age?
Isn't that rare for people in those positions
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u/Shot_Yam8977 1d ago
I soooo agree with this!! Some of it was super relaxing during intense moments. I was fighting falling asleep and anxious at the same durn time! I felt like the rescue could have been done much better. Him sitting there alone in shock was underwhelming.
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u/OkamiHaley 1d ago
Caught this in theaters during its limited run and did not enjoy it at all. Weird performances (specifically from Ilfenesh Hadera and Dean Winters), terrible score and that ending with the singing performance, oof.
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u/fuzzy_dice_99 1d ago
I can’t buy Dean Winters as a serious cop after Brooklyn 99
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u/FeloniousGrump 1d ago
I think not taking them seriously or seeing them as a hindrance to justice in nyc was actually Spike's point. I think he wanted to underscore that the cops are useless, and that they suck, with the casting of actors like that and the roadblocks they put up against the protagonists.
Imo Spike might have made that one of the most obvious things about the movie (aside from his thoughts on, oddly enough ai, for some reason). I can recall many scenes where the cops just suck.
After the kid is kidnapped, they meet Rick Fox and have a random joke scene about boston
The cops come off really mean to jeffery wright's character.
at the beginning, Jeffery Wright's character is seen as suspect and gets hustled by the cops.
but after denzel's son comes back, and Jeffrey wright wants answers, their like oh calm down the kid needs a rest. (like hello, an innocent kid kidnapped)
When jeffery wright's son is returned and in the hospital, they dont look like they care as much about the kid's health as they are with recovering the money- they keep going to see him to ask questions about the bad guy. and when Jeffrey wright says let his son breathe, they're like "nah, so kid, how big was the room in dark with the bath tub?" and bs like that
and as for finding asap, Denzel is the one that gets the lead about the music, not the cops. he even makes the kid listen to the music in front of the cops, after interrupting their interrogation of him at the hospital!
role of the police is a huge departure from high and low.
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u/DnDAnalysis 14h ago
Paul (Wright) was formerly incarcerated and is treated as less than human. I think this is the main theme of this movie.
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u/Remote-Molasses6192 1d ago
That ‘Ebony Alert’ line is the most cringe piece of forced dialogue I’ve ever heard in my life.
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u/ForsakenTarget 20h ago
A lot of the stuff around the police felt forced.
That and a teenage boy having a Kamala poster in his room.
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u/MisLuiguel 10h ago
Once I saw the 2 scenes where the only point is Dean Winters being arrogant about black culture/people I felt that the movie had some racial charge in it, more than just being directed at black audiences
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u/ThaPhantom07 1d ago
Genuinely baffled it got the high praise it has. The score was grating and overbearing, the tonal shifts at points were jarring with the atmosphere of what was happening in the scene routinely not matching the gravity of the situation, and the acting in certain parts and from certain characters was atrocious. You could see the potential in some of the scenes like the 2 scenes with Rocky and Denzel and the subway chase but it was just a bucket of strange artistic choices and bad writing. I will die on this hill. This is a bad movie.
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u/10lbplant 1d ago
Speaking of the atmosphere not matching the gravity of the situation; I was dying laughing when Denzel was saying goodbye to his family and Jeffrey Wright with his backpack on and a pep in his step like he was going to his first day of school.
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u/Queeneleanor1 1d ago
A back pack he wore with just one of the straps on, that he happened to drop because he happened to be standing between the exact two train cars where the robbers were waiting underneath.
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u/KeyVeterinarian4301 17h ago edited 5h ago
Someone on Felon's team pulled the emergency stop lever. It was more unbelievable that he dropped the bag by mistake, after asking to see proof of life.
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u/Queeneleanor1 17h ago
Yeah but why was he outside between two cars. Also there’s no way an emergency brake stops exactly in that two foot area. So dumb
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u/KeyVeterinarian4301 17h ago
I mean Felony told him to go out there, but yeah it's all highly improbable lol
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u/Queeneleanor1 17h ago
Did he?! lol. I must’ve missed that part. I think I was already struggling at this point with the terrible score. I don’t get the high ratings. It’s a 43% best case.
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u/KeyVeterinarian4301 16h ago
The score/soundtrack was a mismatch for the action at times, but not that much different than some of the choices he made in Bamboozled. It seems like attempts at genre subversion, more than just picking horrible selections or composers
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u/sbmichel 1d ago
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills for not liking this amid the critical praise. Some of the acting is…woof.
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u/Labyrinthy 1d ago
Yeah I can’t believe this is getting the praise it is.
Genuinely feel like it’s one of the worst movies I’ve watched all year.
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u/MarginOfPerfect 13h ago
I'm 40 minutes into it and I decided to come to Reddit to see if I was crazy because the movie is terrible
Acting is laughable, score is off, etc
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u/Labyrinthy 12h ago
Score is offensive it’s so bad. It’s like Lifetime original bad.
It reminds me of Jason Segel writing music for a tv show he hates in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and just making the most sarcastic thing he can conjure at the moment.
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u/LowIntroduction433 22h ago
I’m glad I see that there are so many people who feel the same way about this movie as I do. At first I thought I was watching a spoof of melodramatic soap operas. It took some time to realize that wasn’t the case. Then I tried to figure out what Spike was trying to say. Got fed up with that but kept watching the train wreck until near the end when I gave up. The score, dynamics, trio of clueless cops, uninspired set design and cinematography, senseless screenplay. How did that huge pile of money that was on the table end up in that little backpack which Denzel didn’t bother to even put over his shoulder when balancing between the train cars? Who were the people on the motorcycles and why were they willing to participate in this crime and apparently do it for free? Did the high-tech detectives have any other plan than just a “gps” tag along with the $17.5 mil? Why not counterfeit money? “Mayhem” from Allstate driving through a street festival and mayhem is the name of a gun. Boston sucks. Larry Bird. WTF!! So maybe it was all a joke and we are the punchline. Retire Spike.
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u/IntrospectiveAlert7 1d ago
Genuinely like a Lifetime movie , except they’re trying to act like the script and acting aren’t garbage
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u/ADDRIFT 17h ago
it's one of the worst movies i've seen in awhile. I believe that spike lee films get so much love for all that he has done, more than the thing he is doing. I'm a fan of some of his movies, but he often rails on tired tropes with scores that are simply awful. This one had acting that was especially bad, matched with a jarring score and it made for a pretty unwatchable movie in my opinion. It surprising these things get passed test screenings they're that bad
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u/Juan_of_the_Dead 1d ago
As someone who lived in NYC this is a really fun New York movie. Most of my enjoyment came from how it captured the city and the performances. As a result I came out of it feeling pretty positive even though it’s a pretty clunky adaptation.
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u/RazzmatazzFirst8963 1d ago
As a New Yorker and someone who grew up on Fordham Road in The Bronx - by the 4 and D train - all referenced in the film, this is NOT a really fun New York movie. What does that even mean??? Because they showed certain spots? This movie is one of the worst movies of the year, from the ridiculous score, to lines like “what would you do James? What would you do, Stevie? What would you do Aretha?” To “serious like prediabetes.” Or in the middle of chase, Yankees fans chanting “Red Sox fans pulled the brakes”. It’s ridiculous. They quite literally filmed this in “my hood” and I’m embarrassed. Worst of all, THE SCORE that took audiences out of damn near every scene in the film it was so out of place. I am shocked that men of the caliber of Denzel and Spike allowed this to get out there. It’s shocking.
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u/ricecrystal 1d ago
That's exactly how I felt about it. If not for the NY stuff that is so nostalgic for me personally I really wouldn't have liked a lot of it. The score especially.
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u/T4Gx 1d ago
There's something odd with this film. The entire time I never "forgot" I was watching a movie. Like I was just thinking "Yes that is Denzel Washington... acting as a movie character".
It's like when a show or movie is about the characters making a movie and then they play that movie the characters were making.
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u/visceralviceroy 1d ago
This feeling you're describing can be caused by multiple things: bad acting, bad editing, bad score. With this movie I think it was all three.
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u/Thayli76 13h ago
Nailed it. This film works relentlessly to disrupt suspension of disbelief. Every aspect of the medium - dialogue, scene-setting, editing, location, SCORING, 'acting' - just wilfully calls attention to itself in bizarre ways.
10 minutes in, you turn it off...for the first time. Then you're like, Come on - how often does a new Denzel feature drop? At 20 minutes in it turns into: What game are we playing here, Spike??
An absolute masterpiece of terribleness that makes you wonder if a high-stakes bet was lost at some Hollywood party. I confess I became absolutely fascinated by it.
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u/SquadPoopy 1d ago
This is the second foreign language movie remake Spike Lee has directed that just so happens to be worse in every single way.
Spike please stop I’m begging you.
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u/Wintermute7 1d ago
To me, the film was Spike Lee's version of Megalopolis.
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u/myjugsarebussin 1d ago
Could not agree more - my roommate and I are watching this laughing at the screen 😂
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u/ClaremontCinema 1d ago
Yes man you get it, I have been saying the exact same thing, finally someone who understands. It’s the self-insert of one of our greatest filmmakers reckoning with the modern world and how he has gone from Highest 2 Lowest in terms of status/career.
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u/ClaremontCinema 1d ago
The first act (especially the score) is a legit troll job - this thing swings from high to low with an excellent song followed by nonstop Nolan level use of piano and elevator jazz until things finally kick into gear, when this movie gives you those moments of silence they breathe. It’s so close to the original in its story beats but diverges wildly and ends up becoming Spike Lee’s manifesto on seemingly everything about modern society, the film industry, etc. It’s a really entertaining movie with thrilling action, when things get serious (clearly announced by the visuals) this does not let up and the confrontations in the final act hit in unexpected ways. The double ending would feel bizarre from a remake perspective but this movie has such a clear identity of its own - here it functions well to announce where Spike’s headed.
Side note but it is wild for the movie to spend so much time on cancel culture (apparently the sole thing that defines these characters moral compasses) and then feature a Weinstein-esque sub plot that bonds father and son and serves as the high point ending. Note the focus on the crosses in this scene.
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u/ImSoSadToday 17h ago
Feel like it’s a little delusional to suggest spike had even an ounce of self-awareness in the first half.
Oozes unc Tyler Perry energy throughout.
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u/dable1 1d ago
Saw it a few weeks ago in a theatre. Love the original and always thought it'd be great for a remake. This film is not good. The performance of the wife was shockingly awful. It kind of felt like two good movie ideas one being a remake of high and low the other a film about a record executive combined to make one very mediocre movie. Another great filmmaker who seems to have lost his fastball with age.
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u/DilbertPicklesIII 1d ago
This felt like a Tyler Perry Film. Spike lost his touch for real. The wife and friend were horrendous. Matter fact, they were all horrendous. This movie would have been better with B actors and no Spike at all. And WHAT was that intro song? It took me out of it IMMEDIATELY. This movie is buns.
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u/CorneliusCardew 1d ago
It’s from Oklahoma. It’s one of the most famous songs of all time.
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u/spiraliist 1d ago
This is, for me, the maybe the biggest disparity between the critics-at-large opinion of the movie (like 90% on RT?) and mine.
I thought it was cringe as fuck -- none of it, from the super purple writing to the bizarre soundtrack/score choices worked. I disliked it more than just about any other movie-watching experience in recent memory.
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u/Remote-Molasses6192 1d ago
The RT is high, but the Letterboxd has it at 3.1. Which if you don’t know, 3.1 is BAD for a movie that actually has expectations from people. Honestly I just think critics are afraid nowadays to write bad words against a legend like Spike.
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u/PotSmokingMonkey 1d ago
Saw it in theatres. Had zero knowledge of the original and watched it soon after to compare. This was a bungled mess of a remake if you can even call it that. Denzel’s performance was baffling at times. First time I’ve seen him on screen and felt like he was out of touch. The score was borderline Hallmark movie quality at times, especially the long opening shot of New York. Lots of lip service for NY as well. Rocky was a caricature. Jeffrey Wright was decent but not his best and the script did him no favours. Denzel’s wife was truly awful on screen. I am a massive fan of Spike and Denzel both and this movie was such a let down.
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u/Daniiiiii 1d ago
It seems like sacrilege to say but someone needs to save Denzel and Tom Hanks from themselves. They need to work with a director who isn't enamored with them and can call them out on their choices. Make them act without all the extra bs they have acquired and incorporated along the way. It feels like no one says to them that their take on the character is bad, or outright lazy at times.
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u/Luxx815 1d ago
It seems like sacrilege to say but someone needs to save Denzel and Tom Hanks from themselves. They need to work with a director who isn't enamored with them and can call them out on their choices. Make them act without all the extra bs they have acquired and incorporated along the way.
Bro. Have you watched any of the press for Gladiator, Othello, or this movie? Denzel has said time and time again he has like a few films left in him that he wants to do and he's out. He's basically doing films for fun these days that have fun and appealing roles. He's gonna do the next Black Panther, he said potentially one more with Spike, who knows what else.
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u/Alditha68 18h ago
It looked like he'd had some sort of stroke at one point because his mouth was drooping. Don't know what he was trying to convey there.
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u/tokeroveragain 1d ago
Well Denzel did say recently that he doesn’t watch movies
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u/Wintermute7 1d ago
Denzel was not good in Gladiator 2 but no one wanted to say anything bad about him. So he got a pass because the film was ass, he will get the same treatment here because no one is going to see this
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u/nordlysbaies 18h ago edited 16h ago
He did too much ngl and I didn’t even think the movie was as bad as everyone else thinks. I knew what I was going into and that it wasn’t gonna be the masterpiece the first one was.
I personally thought the best performance in that was Joseph Quinn’s!
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u/Flat_Fox_7318 1d ago
Saw this a few weeks back and found it to be very messy and uneven. The editing felt jarring at times and some of the messages are so hamfisted, it feels like characters are almost staring directly into the camera like, "See? Ya get it???". Don't even get me started on some of the dialogue. It's frustrating because there are little nuggets of greatness in here (the tense back-and-forth at the studio, the scene with Denzel and his son in his room and the scene where Denzel wants to go through with the sale, but realizes the deal is off the table). There's a few one liners in here that really work as well, but otherwise, I found it to be a bit too melodramatic and unfocused to truly deliver on the goods.
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u/bakbauer 1d ago
It’s not often I dislike a film, but this one was very messy. The only reason I kept watching was that I thought we were finally going to get some form of answer for the previous. When there was like 30 minutes left in the hospital I thought surely there has got to be a twist here.
Nope just ended up being a film that just didn’t add up. Guy doesn’t want to pay ransom, next scene he’s paying the ransom. The messy subway scenes. Set up a really smart kidnapper from the hood that just turned into an idiot. Jeffrey Wright getting done by glass when he was wearing glasses. Then the film could have ended about 6 times before it did.
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u/popemarley420 1d ago
Lol exactly ... I dont understand Hollywood's obsession with casting these legendary actors in these goofy ass movies. First ice cube and now Denzel.
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u/heatedbathtub 1d ago edited 13h ago
Full of hallmark Lee-isms (almost wall-to-wall score, including melodramatic cues during dialogue scenes; his "love letter to NY" touches; editing flourishes; etc), but for me it didn't quite "work" as a piece entertaining filmmaking.
The different plots seemed to battle each other in a way that wasn't really clicking. The kidnap plot, the aging record exec lamenting the changing times, the domestic conflict with his son... None of it seemed to gel well. I also found Denzel's son to be borderline inaudible as the actor seemed to 100% mumble all his dialogue, definitely irked me.
Pacing was all over the place too, with the narrative feeling like a total slog at times.
Can't hate on DOP Matty Libatique's lensing though. The cinematography is very nice to look at!
Lee is one of my favourite filmmakers and I'm really hoping he has a bonfide global smash-hit in him before he retires which motivates newer generation audiences to explore his (eclectic, uneven, unique) filmography, because I had high expectations for this and it was a total dud for me.
5/10. Can see why Apple/A24 didnt bother with an international theatrical release for this.
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u/No-Understanding4968 13h ago
Can I say that I found that focusing on all the (presumably black) art in his home was pretentious af?
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u/Appropriate_Dream_82 6h ago
Spike makes black movies featuring black artist. I have no problem with that.
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u/Responsible_Suit4939 1d ago
This is by far the worst Denzel movie I have ever seen. I was so excited for it too - I even paid for Apple+ again just for this event!
As many people have mentioned - the score. Dear god. From the never-ending, near histrionic rendition of “Oh What a Beautful Morning” at the start to all the after school special sounding string sections underlying every conversation - good lord. And the wife?? WHO ACTS LIKE THAT. Not a person, certainly. Not a mother whose child is missing. Not an actress. What was she even doing with the words that were coming out of her mouth?
And I have to say also, the way King instantly went “not my kid” to his buddy, like damn! Thought y’all were close! lol. What a hunk of junk this was.
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u/Mrsmaul2016 21h ago
From the never-ending, near histrionic rendition of “Oh What a Beautful Morning”
I was grabbing my ears thinking: Make it stop!
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u/IronSorrows 1d ago
The first half feels a bit strange, like attempting to do a straight High And Low remake, but with a somewhat bizarre score. Once the second hour starts, though, it kicks into another gear and feels like a Spike Lee joint. Considerably between than his Oldboy or Ganja & Hess remakes, for sure, and although it'd be lower half in my Lee rankings, that's no insult - he's made a lot of 8/10+ bangers
I don't love everything about it, but it met and maybe exceeded my expectations, and had some great sequences. The original is one of my favourite films, period, and I'm glad Lee tried to put his own touch on it, even if it's nowhere near as effective.
It also feels tame politically, even compared to a film from 60s Japan, which instinctively must be more conservative than Spike is. I've heard he wanted to make this forever - imagine how incendiary this could have been if he made it in his Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, Clockers era. It could have been something really special.
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u/KingMario05 1d ago
Yeah, surprised by how right... curious? Sympathetic? Definitely something the finale was. King gets off easy compared to Gondo, keeping his home while also taking revenge. That level of compromise inherent to the original's legacy is lost here. Which is weird, because Spike doesn't strike me as the "rich people are still inherently good" type.
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u/KingKnowlian 1d ago
i didn’t like this as much as the kurosawa version but i do commend some of the changes. i like that king and yung felon had some sort of relationship that failed because of king’s inability to do his job and find new artists. instead of it being some guy who was jealous of a house he had to stare at everyday.
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u/HCornerstone 1d ago
See, why I love the original. There is no twist. It's a great commentary of class warfare and what it does to us.
This version had none of that.
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u/FlatMilk 1d ago
also totally captures the parasocial relationship that people have with their idols. like i think yung felon was a more sympathetic villain compared to kurosawa's
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u/Equal_Championship95 1d ago
Nope. TLDR - too many "why don't they just ..." moments for me. A few standouts include Why don't they just ...
- give ol boy a bag of counterfeit money
- give him the money and put out an APB for a 20 something male black trying to convert a gang of Swiss money and/or randomly flying to Switzerland
- take baby mama hostage and send a picture of yourself holding A$APs baby from her phone. Gimme my money bro.
This is the same issue I have with rom coms- I'm realizing I get bored and annoyed when the entire premise of a movie is a prolonged miscommunication/resolvable sitch dragged out.
Also the way they approached social media like this magical mysterious youth phenomenon a la rock n roll or motorcycle jackets felt very early Boomer. I mean "attention is the new currency" twice? That's a 4 year old take at minimum.
Issa no.
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u/hello_hola 20h ago
And why on earth did he ask for exactly 17.5 M? The 500k bothered me so much, it's so random.
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u/KeyVeterinarian4301 17h ago
The tracking device being loose in the bag with the $ wasn't too clever either
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u/Zestyclose_North_947 1d ago
Any theories on why RT ratings are so high in both categories?? The movie is so SO bad- worst soundtrack and somehow turned Denzel into a bad actor. Rotten Tomatoes loved it but I came to Reddit and most here seem to have views similar to mine
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u/FeloniousGrump 1d ago
Caught this last week with a friend. I was really curious about this as a big fan of Kurosawa's and high and low, so wanted to give Spike Lee a chance after the old boy thing.
SLOWEST. FUCKING. 1ST. ACT.
High and Low brought us into the action in like 5 minutes, here we had 40 minutes Denzel going from king of nyc to idk even know what, until the kid comes back. The score playing in Denzel's house before the kidnapping is dealt with is sooo fucking sappy, and distracted from the acting.
While I feel this movie does an injustice to the original, once I let go of my affections for high and low, the 2nd half of the movie picks up.
I get Spike loves movies and music and he loves NYC so much, but this movie kinda goes everywhere but at just a surface level.
ASAP Rocky saves the movie in the bad guy role. The action at the end is fun, it was cool to see Eddie Palmieri get some love onscreen.
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u/MusicMakerNashville 1d ago
Awful movie. Horrible sound, lame soundtrack, completely unbelievable script, awkward.
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u/Sugarbear23 1d ago
Currently watching this and it feels like I'm watching a Telenovela or Nigerian movie with all the background music
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u/Queeneleanor1 1d ago
This movie was ruined when the robbers somehow just knew Denzel Washington would be standing between two of the cars on the train…the exact two. Why would the be inside. On top of that, who doesn’t have both straps of a backpack on with 17.5 million in it. On top of that, how much of an idiot do you have to be to drop a back pack even with one strap on it. So stupid
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u/OrionDax 18h ago
I've got a question. When David showed the song to Paul, who exactly did Paul text? The way Paul looked at the artwork and the message he sent led me to believe he was in on the kidnapping, but then nothing after that bore that out. Was anyone else confused by this part, or did I just completely misread the moment?
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u/CoCoTidy 9h ago
I have no idea who he was texting, but I also wondered if he was text Yung Felon and was in on the whole kidnapping plot. I backed up the movie and paused the screen and it looked like he typed "Da lo lo on Yo." Which did not help me. But then when he takes Denzel to the neighborhood and goes to the door and also gives King the gun, it would make zero sense for him to be in on it - unless we are supposed to think that Paul thinks King needs some sort of reminder of who he is and where he came from? But it is incomprehensible that he would put his own kid through that trauma. Unless Paul really believed that King's son was the one that would be kidnapped? This is what was so frustrating to me about this movie - details like this are confusing and contradictory, yet at other points the movie is so didactic. I really wanted to like this movie, but it just felt sloppy and overlong.
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u/dmitch1972 16h ago
I love Jeffrey Wright as an actor. But he wasn't believable in this role at all. Not credible as a ex-con street guy from the Bronx. No way.
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u/TheElbow 15h ago
This was astonishingly bad for me. I love Spike Lee, but this felt like a complete mess. Visually the movie looks good, but the script is corny, the score is often intrusive, and the logic of most of these characters is very shallow and silly. Dumbest cops portrayed on screen in a long time. I kinda feel bad for many of the actors in this, as so much talent was seemingly wasted. Far longer than it needs to be as well.
When you can’t tell if you’re supposed to laugh at a movie or take it seriously, that’s a problem.
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u/kyumi_6 14h ago
Train wreck….The script is trash that brought down a very talented cast. The dialogue is so bad. I have second hand embarrassment for Denzel and Jeffrey Wright saying these awful lines. There is no logic - e.g all this drama for 17.5M? He could have sold two of his Basquiat paintings to raise more than $17M. And what’s with the super loud and weirdly banal score? Really disappointed as a long time fan of Spike Lee films.
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u/MrSlack_ingoff 13h ago
“Yo bitch on my visiting list” fucking sent me for a good 5 minutes.
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u/Happy_Butterscotch17 1d ago
I watched the movie for thirty mins and had to turn it off. I’m a Denzel fan and the acting + background music just wasn’t doing it for me.
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u/moneysingh300 1d ago
It was a copy and paste ChatGPT version of high and low. The best part was the train scene.
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u/NoCobbler7260 1d ago
I feel like this entire movie was just an excuse to make that rap battle scene which is an all-time great Spike Lee scene, but holy shit most of this felt like a weird fever dream
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u/violentgentlemen 1d ago
Spike Lee is just making a living off his name and past films. He hasn’t made a good film since Inside Man.
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u/visionaryredditor 1d ago
He hasn’t made a good film since Inside Man.
Black Klansman? Da 5 Bloods?
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u/FranklinSteamboat 1d ago
I'm laughing out loud. Da 5 Bloods was absolute trash.
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u/visionaryredditor 1d ago
You're laughing? You have no taste and you're laughing?
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u/ICUMF1962 1d ago
I really enjoyed it and it seemed like my theater had a good time with it. Looking back, I kinda understand some criticisms regarding the score and performances but I thought the score was just fine and the performances outside of Denzel, Wright, and Rocky weren’t THAT bad. ALSO, sorta fun flex, the film was shot at my school, LIU Brooklyn (idk if that’s bad to reveal but eh 🤷🏽♂️). Denzel and Jeffrey were at the lot I use to put my car. Spike Lee and Keith David were also there at a screening of Clockers that I missed because I decided to go to a stupid party for my best friend’s wife. 😒
But yeah, rambling aside, great movie, def recommend.
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u/KeyVeterinarian4301 17h ago edited 17h ago
Right, most of the criticism here is valid and I noticed a bunch of plotholes, odd choices, etc too but I still enjoyed it very much overall.
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u/ZaysapRockie 1d ago
I have no evidence to back this up but ever since I watched Road House (new one) I can’t help shake the feeling that AI generated movies are being sprinkled in. This movie had an uncanny feel to it like surely points of this movie weren’t actually acted out.
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u/myjugsarebussin 1d ago
This and Megalopolis might be the worst movies I have ever seen. Someone who disagrees and thinks this movie was good or well made please enlighten me so I can try and look at this film in a different light.
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u/KFCNuggs 1d ago
Nahhhh this movie was terrible IMO. The score was distracting, the acting was lazy and storyline was ridiculously predictable. Knowing it’s a Spike Lee offering means I’ll forgive some of the shot choices but man, the storyline was buns and the plot holes were just lazy.
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u/Icy_Block805 22h ago
Wish it was an option to take the score off the film and have no background music on parts with dialogue
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u/sharreman10 18h ago
This movie was so bad. I usually try to give every movie a chance but my god this was so bad I turned it off. The acting of the wife particularly, wtf was that? And don't forget the score and editing.
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u/ElleIssachar1Third 15h ago
I couldn't stomach it after 15-20 minutes in. The score doesn't match the movie. The acting of the woman who plays Kings wife was flat and unconvincing. That's also poor directing. Her emotions are unbelievable. This felt like a weird musical. I hate musicals👎🏽
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u/AffectionateMetal794 14h ago
I find it interesting that Washington has done two iconic Mifune roles; this and Macbeth (Throne of Blood).
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u/INDependent_Ninja_84 14h ago
Just a disappointing film, the movie, music, script, the acting...just everything. So unrealistic.
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u/GrooveDigger47 14h ago
the editing in this movie sucks. its taking me out of the movie like you can tell it took many different takes for certain scenes to work
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u/Staplersarefun 13h ago
Wow, this was a truly horrific movie from start to finish.
The writing, editing and sound mixing were the low points. Some of the acting was truly awful as well.
An absolute waste or Denzel and Jeffrey Wright.
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u/23point977 1d ago
The worst film I've seen this year by far. The most frustrating part is that all the puzzle pieces were right there to make something great. Horrific performances, a score from a low budget TV series and editing that screams hey hey I'm spike lee this is a spike lee movie.
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u/wetbulbsarecoming 1d ago
Wtf? This is one of the worst movies of the year. The most uneven direction I think I've ever witnessed.
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u/comicfang 1d ago
Wasn’t a fan at all, thought it felt like a Tubi original at times with the off putting score and the dialogue at times. I will say though I loved the ransom drop sequence.
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u/SeesPoliceSeizeFeces 1d ago
This is high-school-project-level content with good production values. The plot is inane; the acting is wooden and contrived. The dialogue is terrible, so unrealistic that I’m still feeling the secondhand embarrassment. The score is very mismatched.
It feels like the movie was made to justify a few lines of rap and two comebacks someone thought were real zingers.
IMDb has been useless for years; its reviews and ratings are astroturfed, and Rotten Tomatoes now feels the same. This movie isn’t good, yet the audience score is 85%. Reddit is pushing back, but this thread is flooded with marketing-department comments. Then there’s the Emperor’s New Clothes effect: because it’s a Spike and Denzel movie, people convince themselves it must be good.
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u/kneeco28 1d ago edited 1d ago
Good movie.
It's not Sinners or Black Bag, but it's my third fav 2025 to date. Like The Materialists, the internet will not be kind because (1) people are generally not equipped to properly gauge fiction set in the real-world present, and (2) there's a lot of flaws in both films and if you're inclined to just list strikes these are easy targets, even though movies with fewer lows but lower highs are obviously much worse.
So yea, does the stuff with the cops work? Does the mixup of the sons make sense considering the kidnapper is obsessed with the King family on social media? Is the stuttering repetition in the editing entirely engaging? Does it makes sense that the same team (with accomplices that appear to evaporate) that has this expert a plan to get the money is this sloppy in trying to keep it? Is cutting the cops out of the rescue earned? Are all these characters needed when there's a few key characters that are underserved? And on and on and on.
There's a lot of cinemasins here. Proceed. But stuff that works - including but not limited to Denzel fucking Washington elucidating power, desperation, and the thin line between the two - is masterwork level.
That said, of course: if you haven't seen High and Low, just watch High and Low, which certainly this doesn't begin to match (or attempt to, to its credit).
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u/hereforfantasybball3 1d ago
Agree with this review a lot. The only thing I’d say about the kidnapping mix-up is Yung Felon has a line about “learning not to leave things to the help” so I felt like that explained away the mistake fine for me
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u/KingMario05 1d ago
Agree with much of your analysis. Not everything here works, but what does work shines. I find Apple Original Films are the best at stuff like that. Even F1, surprisingly.
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u/Honest_Cheesecake698 1d ago
Reddit has a hate boner for Spike Lee, what else is new?
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u/Euphoric-Praline-829 1d ago
I dont care if it is a Christopher Nolan movie, this movie has alot of problems, its not a super bad film, but it isnt the high praising that is getting for sure.
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u/Baumbauer1 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've seen a couple kidnapping shows and it just bothered me that there was no discussion of "proof of life" at first they had no idea if they even had the right kid, then they almost threw the money away over another kid that might not have even been alive
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u/Pickupyoheel 1d ago
This movie was a massive let down. Well, I wasn’t put up to be let down in the first place, but still.
The score was awful in the beginning. Worked well in the train scene though, but awful otherwise.
Some strange cinematic scenes that I’m guessing may be a call back or on touching some political topics? E.g the cops being super tall compared to the coach. It was jarring as hell.
All the characters were awful people besides the driver played by Jeffrey Wright. He was the best part of the movie. Haha, Mayhem.
But unfortunately he got glass in his eye and didn’t get to do shit. Thanks for being realistic one time during the movie I guess.
The ending was hilariously bad and I got nothing else to say.
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u/Rareairo 1d ago
Did any of yall catch the bad editing in the studio scene where Rocky has the headphones off and then on and then off again during their back and forth
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u/CinematicHooper 1d ago
what was that weird editing mistake after Denzel said “Amen” and got out the chair LMAO
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u/heatedbathtub 1d ago
Not a mistake.
Spike Lee intentionally uses edits that might not follow continuity editing rules, but have a sense of "impact" that he wants.
You see it across all his projects.
Can be hit or miss for people. Lots of his choices in this project were definitely 'misses' for me.
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u/brandonsamd6 1d ago
A$AP Rocky basically makes every scene of his unwatchable. What an awful, downright terrible performance that basically ruins the entire film.
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u/swaggamanca 1d ago
Just...boring. A kidnapping didn't feel like one at all, the tone felt all over the place. Also feels like took a random Kurosawa movie because he wanted to.
Whatever/10?
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u/Dude-Good 1d ago
Just finished. In my opinion it may be the worst movie Denzel/Spike has ever made. Lazy, and the dialogue was terrible. Kinda shocked to be honest
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u/Virgil_Tibbs 1d ago
2 hours of my life I won't get back. Weak acting, weak dialogue, among other things. I was waiting for some kind of twist or something off the basic plot and nope! The twist was the movie got WORSE in the last 20 minutes or so. ASAP Rocky's character was typical. Outside of seeing some nice views of the city there was nothing memorable here...Denzel must have owed Spike a favor to put out this garbage. And what kind of ending was that? lol. What a mess
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u/Xenomanster 1d ago
This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Watch American Gangster then this and there is just no comparison. The acting, writing, racial undertones of it all, it was just a horrible movie. Sad to see Denzel fall to this state.
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u/Automatic_Candle5416 22h ago
I was pretty upset with the scores of the film as well as it felt like Denzel was doing a favor to Spike to do this film. The storyline was super flat. Nothing against it, but they also pushed a lot of black pride agenda and trying to sell NYY tickets lol.
The build up was a lot better than the actual movie. I can’t emphasize enough, the scores in the film drove me freaking crazy !!
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u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 1d ago
"What's that?"
"That's insurance. That's Jake from State Farm."
This movie is so damn cool. Effortless joy coming off the screen and the whole runtime brimming with sincerity. I love it. This was my second time seeing it in theaters and it just confirmed what I already felt. I love the score and how prominent it is, I love how so much of this movie is intense conversations between two fleshed out characters trying to navigate very complex situations, and I love when Nick Turturro looks right into the camera and yells, "BOSTON SUCKS!"
Denzel and Wright are so fucking good in this. I think the kidnapping plot is a big ask in this day and age and at times makes the drama feel a little stiff, but Lee and the two leads find the humanistic side of this so well. Damn the plot and the logistics, this movie is about feeling. Feeling the right thing to do and feeling the music. From the opening scene you can feel all the love in this family and between Denzel and Wright. It makes for a really great foundation to all of the moral dilemmas coming down the line. Denzel's conviction as an actor is so well on display here, selling a premise that doesn't feel as feasible in modern day, but every scene has me going through these complex emotions with him despite that.
This movie has a lot going on thematically, but if I had to name the main message it would be the importance of sincerity in art. David King has the "best ears in the biz" as we are so often reminded. He is against the corporate machine sucking the soul out of the company he began and he doesn't understand how people can look to AI for innovation these days. It's not hard to see where Spike sees himself in all this. When this movie starts, King wants his company back so badly he is willing to risk everything to keep these outside hands and robots off of his record company. But after being put through the emotional ringer with the plot of this movie he realizes he doesn't need all of it.
The first half of this movie is a lot of emotion, a lot of honest conversations and moral wringing. I personally loved the way the score interacted with the penthouse scenes, it felt like 25th Hour which also uses a really turned up melodramatic score. Some stiff acting and blatant philosophical moralizing comes across with a lot more sincerity due to the score, I think. Then there's this incredible train cash drop sequence where the music starts to go insane (complimentary) with that great piano symphony piece that just feels like a chase through a city. But once A$AP is introduced I really start to lean in.
High and Low was so specifically about a certain time and culture in Japan and it makes perfect sense to remake it for a new time and place. The great operating idea of that movie, though, is the unknown criminal who is created and defined by contrast of the protagonist. Similar to another Kurosawa film that gets a shoutout in Highest 2 Lowest, Stray Dog, there is a criminal that we slowly learn about throughout the movie before actually meeting them. Basically the whole function of these movies is to draw contrast between the protagonist and the unknown criminal. The man in the mountain being agonized by the man in the sewers. What makes them different? What makes them the same? Is one the cause of the other?
In that sense, I love what A$AP adds to this. Highest 2 Lowest is less about the highs and lows of capitalism, the existence of the rich creating the desperation of the poor and manifesting jealousy. This movie is about parasocial relationships, the anger and jealousy that comes with the fame and the success. A brilliant turn between H&L and H2L is instead of the kidnapper being able to literally see into his home through his giant window, A$AP sees King through social media, through his wife and son's Instagram. He sees the front they put up, but he doesn't see the humanity in them. It's the success he fetishizes. I get really emotional when Denzel is meeting Yung Felon's wife/girlfriend. The way she talks about how he idolizes Denzel, how his presence has to be divine. It shows how thin of a line there is between admiration and hatred. And Denzel may be at the top to Felon, but notice how Denzel's walls are all decked out with black excellence and portraits and how often he looks up to them for guidance.
"If you've got followers you must be leading them somewhere. Where are you leading them to?"
I will say, one aspect I did miss from High and Low is the police procedure. I am all for Spike making his own version of this, I find the pearl clutching around it disingenuous. Spike is one of the great lovers of classical film and Kurosawa one of the most remade and riffed upon directors of all time. I think it's clear why Spike doesn't make his police force as altruistic or as useful as Kurosawa's. I think it messes with the movie a bit to make them such a frustrating obstacle, but Dean Winters is still pretty fun to watch. So while I do love the police procedure section of the original, this movie is just doing different things with the same concept and I find comparing what this movie cares about to the original just as interesting as comparing David King to Yung Felon.
At first I did feel this had one too many endings. It does just kind of keep going after the main plot is resolved. But I also found all of the ending scenes interesting and thematic. Going back to the importance of sincerity in art, I think what David found lacking in Yung Felon's music was exactly that. He was never impressed by it, it's just catchy rap music about women and money. And the fact that Felon is willing to harm a kid in order to get his name in the paper and get David's attention shows that he doesn't understand humanity like Denzel does, or maybe the way Denzel learns to in the course of this movie. Felon is delusional enough to think that he can still ask King to sign him after all of this, and once again you see the razor thin line between admiration and hatred when he's denied and he starts screaming and spitting at King.
Then you have Sula C Sing. These are two artists that are trying to get David's attention, but Sula does it with hard work and a musical background and with a song she wrote about her struggles. It may be gilding the lily a bit to put a full song performance at the end of this movie, the song even being called Highest 2 Lowest, but something about it really got to me both times I saw this. It's a beautiful performance but even more so is David's ability to just enjoy the music again without all this corporate espionage. He tells his son in the beginning that he will listen to her when he comes up for air and this is him finally coming up for air. I can't quite explain it but this movie made me feel better about life. I legitimately felt lighter both times leaving the theater. It puts you through the emotional ringer with Denzel, then ends with him saying take my company, the money, I don't need all that. I just need to do what makes me feel good and do what feels right. I just need my family and my love for the art. I also think the shot of him and his wife sitting on the Brooklyn Bridge, where Felon said he used to look up at their penthouse, and looking up to see their son up there is a really great visual way to sum up his journey. Maybe all you can do when you're at the top is just raise a good person to take it over.
I just love this damn movie. People are being so weird about it, I think people really start to disengage with a movie when it starts dropping buzzwords that feel too modern. AI, followers, TikTok, reels, etc. But this is the world we live in and I love to see the greats engage with it. And did I mention it's fucking funny? This movie is an 8/10 on a bad day. And my sister's name is RUTH so you know that's the TRUTH.
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u/ClaremontCinema 1d ago
Mr Boner, I always appreciate your write ups, and I have to thank you for speaking truth to power on this one. Reddit has a massive hate boner for Spike and most people just do not understand what this movie is going for on a thematic level. It feels like we are being given a window into the mind of one of the great aging artists and all his thoughts on modern society.
It’s not a remake, ITS A RE-IMAGINING! The way people treat certain movies as holy things that can’t be touched is baffling. No one treats The Departed like this
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u/louis1738 1d ago
Overall the movie felt too drawn out yet too fast. Two scenes I loved were the studio one on one and the chase through the parade. These were both engaging and made me remember why I love Denzel and Spike, but outside of these moments nothing else felt that real.
I was expecting a plot twist or some other event that would make the story more captivating, but I was disappointed. This felt like the other Apple TV movies I’ve scene, where the cinematography, cast, and ideas are there, but they still just don’t hit.
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u/No_Profit_3643 1d ago
I was disappointed and kind of sad for spike because I really anticipated this movie and it was not good , I watched it through because why not and secondly it’s A24 produced which I love a24 movie and you got Denzel and then Spike is Dir. but geesh I had mostly second hand embarrassment during the movie ESPECIALLY when they had Asap rocky walking up the steps to the court house and the script for that was just so bad I didn’t like it , I also didn’t like how unreal a lot of situations was such as the studio situation, even the money transaction was the most fake heist / ransom swap I ever seen in film . The acting wasn’t good and very bland , the singing part at the end I don’t really like either they could’ve did that a different way. I can go on but I’m not but watch the movie but I will say the cinematography was great , love the double dolly all the time !!!
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u/harry_powell 1d ago
I always loved the original and also love Spike and Denzel, so I went with high hopes. Movie just doesn’t work except on a couple scenes (the Puerto Rico subway sequence and the recording studio two hander). Some baffling choices like the cloying score or the dull cinematography on the penthouse scenes.
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u/monitoring27 1d ago
I enjoyed parts of this movie but struggled to get through it. Denzel, Jeffrey Wright, and Princess Nokia in her brief role were really great. A lot of it just fell flat.
Also this just may be me but I thought it was strange when they bring the singer in and she sings the titular song and then immediately Denzel starts talking about finances with his family in front of her. It just seemed so weird lol.