Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

Spike’s Remix - Highest 2 Lowest review by griggs

Not so much a remake as a remix. Spike Lee takes Kurosawa’s High and Low and updates the kit without junking the engine. The bones are the same—a ransom crisis that ricochets from penthouse to pavement—but Highest 2 Lowest swaps cigarette smoke for smartphone glow and gives the material a nervy, modern snap. It’s surprisingly playful too; the film has more bounce than you’d expect from a morality tale.

Denzel Washington is terrific—controlled, prickly, and, when pushed out of his comfort zone, unexpectedly raw. You can feel Lee nudging him toward edges he hasn’t visited in years, and together they make the familiar beats feel newly charged. This isn’t Spike doing Kurosawa; this is Spike being Spike: sharp staging, bold colour, punchy cuts, and a city that feels like a character with a siren for a heartbeat.

It’s not immaculate. The opening hour ambles when it should tighten, but the back half locks in and sings. Lee even opts for a more hopeful curtain than Kurosawa’s cool ambiguity, which will irk purists but suits this version’s pulse. Imperfect, lively, and distinctly his, Highest 2 Lowest honours the original while talking in today’s accent.

Bewildering Mix Of Themes - Highest 2 Lowest review by GI

This remake of a 1963 Akira Kurosawa film is a bewildering concoction that left me unsatisfied even whilst I appreciated the dominating central performance from Denzel Washington as a big music mogul. This is part crime thriller, part cultural study and part social drama that feels unevenly paced and a little stilted in the way the film edits the story and in the dialogue. But it's certainly a bold, brash film. Washington is David King, a bit of a cult figure as a famous music producer. He lives in a huge penthouse apartment, has a beautiful wife and sporty son. He's on the brink of a new deal to take over his record company when a kidnapper grabs his godson thinking it's King's son. The godson is the child of King's driver and friend and an ex-con played by Jeffrey Wright. Persuaded to pay the huge ransom leaves King unable to conclude his business deal. The police are rather inept and include one white officer who can barely contain his contempt for everyone involved. Eventually King has to get on the streets to try and get his money back. None of the characters are likeable and nearly of them are self serving. It's unclear if director Spike Lee intended to highlight the police incompetence in dealing with the kidnap but they are certainly useless and the most exciting set piece is King's chase and confrontation with the kidnapper on a subway train. The kidnapper's motives are borderline daft to say the least. Overall this is watchable, has it's moments but it's an unevenly paced film that didn't resonate with me.