Denzel Washington’s Near GOAT Status Single-Handedly Elevates Spike Lee’s Otherwise Decent Remake
My brain pretty much exploded when I heard that Spike Lee was remaking Akira Kurosawa’s AWESOME crime masterpiece “High and Low” with Denzel fucking Washington and Jeffrey fucking Wright. Like those are some serious ingredients for success right there.
But the movie’s goooood, just not great? It was always going to be hard to try and get out from under the shadow of the OG, not that I think Spike was trying to supplant it or anything. But even as its own entity and without comparisons to the original, this is a movie that’s really solid in a lot of ways, but never quite achieves greatness.
Except, of course, from one of the best fucking actors alive and of all damn time, Denzel Washington. Man, he is so good here, as always, as a famous record producer who faces a moral and financial quagmire after a kidnapping. And he’s got a great supporting cast too, with Jeffrey Wright doing classically awesome Jeffrey Wright things (I want these guys to make like 65 more movies together) and surprisingly ASAP Rocky, who goes toe-to-toe with Washington in a few critical scenes and really holds his own.
Outside of the acting, though, and the aforementioned moral/financial conundrum Denzel’s character finds himself in, “Highest 2 Lowest” doesn’t offer a ton more. It lacks the visual flair that we all know Lee is capable of, and also has some seriously odd musical queues that gave the film a TV movie quality every now and again. For me, too, Lee’s dialogue is hit and miss, and it misses a lot, especially in the first half when we’re getting our exposition.
But between how strong Denzel and Co. are here, the fascinating central dilemma of Denzel’s character, and the fact that Lee seems to get more comfortable and find his groove once the movie’s conflict really takes off, “Highest 2 Lowest” overcomes its flaws to turn into a pretty darn solid flick.