Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
#1Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/29/25 at 11:54pm
I am kind of surprised that no one has mentioned this movie on these boards yet. I just finished watching it (Apple TV) and boy is it bad but the opening scene of the Manhattan skyline, Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges was exciting for me especially because of Norm Lewis singing Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.
The cinematography (Matthew Libatique) was probably the best thing about this flick for this New Yorker. I also loved that the cast had many Broadway performers including Denzel, LaChanze, Jeffrey Wright, Michael Potts, Frederick Weller, John Douglas Thompson, Wendell Pierce, Rosie Perez and Anthony Ramos.
The story is not credible but, my Lord, the soundtrack does not track. There were times that you felt like you’re in a different movie based on the music. My favorite chase scene in the Bronx had Irish instrumental music full out with fiddles and flutes. It was quite strange. Then the chase runs into a Puerto Rican day festival so we get to hear Eddie Palmieri and band introduced by Rosie Perez and Anthony Ramos.
I actually loved Spike’s love for the New York sports teams. Nicholas Turturro plays an avid Yankee fan on the 4 train which I found amusing along with some of the train’s signage.
See it for Norm.
TheOtherOne2
Chorus Member Joined: 4/22/23
#2Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 8:03am
Have you ever seen "High and Low," the 1963 Akira Kurosawa movie it is based on? It's wonderful, and as its fan I looked forward to seeing what Spike Lee would do in remaking it. Other than the intrusive and inappropriate soundtrack through at least the first half of the film I loved Lee's flamboyant approach to the material, and the resulting shifts from Japanese to African American characters, Tokyo to NYC (emphasizing Brooklyn and the Bronx) and the shoe business to contemporary music fit the story well.
What works against the film is the last thing you'd expect to: Denzel is miscast. His strength has always been his blue-collar roots. Here we are supposed to buy him as a person on top of the world, gliding through society at its pinnacle - a Quincy Jones or Jay-Z type figure, the one everything revolves around - and he never pulls it off. He has no chemistry at all with the actress who plays his wife and is a shadow of his own Troy Maxson in his dealings with his son. The kidnapping that sets the film's action in motion loses much of its dramatic weight as a result. The actors playing the wife and son fail to make an impression.
This is unfortunate, as everyone around them is great. All of the theater actors you mention make the most of their roles, with Wright providing the bulk of the gravitas. A$AP Rocky, who you did not mention (I guess because he isn't a theater actor), is also terrific, and brings Denzel to full life in their confrontation scene. What follows is, alas, anti-climactic.
I would still call it a film well-worth seeing, thanks to the many superb supporting performances and Lee's visual panache, but I hope it leads people to revisit "High and Low."
nmartin
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/3/05
#3Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 1:43pm
TheOtherOne2 is absolutely correct bout the Kurosawa film being far superior to this misguided remake.
Lee is NOT Kurosawa.
Washington is NOT Mifune.
#4Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 1:50pm
Nor are they trying to be, nor has anyone asserted that they are. What they HAVE done is turn a lot of people on to those artists.
I enjoyed the movie a lot. High highs and low lows, as with most of Spike's output this millennium. The love for this city is so palpable. I liked the first rethought spin on HIGH AND LOW's final scene so much that I was pretty disappointed when they recreated the scene more literally.
nmartin
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/3/05
#5Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 3:50pm
The remake is highly inferior to anyone who has seen the original.
Comparisons are inevitable.
No one connected with Lee's film measures up to Kurosawa's.
#6Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 4:02pm
I thought the movie was not ultimately successful but I do not get the point in comparing the two movies. It's as much based on Kings Ransom as it is High & Low. If you thought Spike Lee was trying to be Kurosawa or Washington was trying to be Mifune, I feel like you watched a different movie than me. The reality is NO ONE is Kurosawa. Also. No one is Spike lee. Kurosawa has more masterpieces but Lee's contributions to cinema are incredible and incomporable.
Did you watch The Bad Sleep Well and shout "WELL IT'S NO HAMLET!!!!"
Jesus saves. I spend.
TheOtherOne2
Chorus Member Joined: 4/22/23
#7Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 4:24pm
To be clear, I didn't think anyone was trying to be anyone else. Spike Lee has his own identity and it speaks for itself. I liked his work here and I think he'd be happy if his movie turned people on to Kurosawa.
Washington is his own man as well, not for an instant trying to be Mifune, but he is miscast in Highest 2 Lowest and the movie suffers for it. It's hard to say this because it's the only performance of his I would say it about. If anything he usually elevates the material, but that just didn't happen here.
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#8Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 4:46pm
The original is a stone cold masterpiece. Lee’s version is a damn mess.
#9Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 5:45pm
TheOtherOne2: Washington is his own man as well, not for an instant trying to be Mifune, but he is miscast in Highest 2 Lowest and the movie suffers for it.
Completely agree.
blug
Swing Joined: 12/27/17
#10Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
Posted: 9/30/25 at 5:56pm
A friend recently saw it and said "You have to see it. I feel like I'm going crazy. This is one of the worst films I have ever seen and everyone is giving it raves."
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