Movie Review: Highest 2 Lowest
Reviewing a remake is always tough. As much as we try to watch the film for what is present on the screen, it’s hard not to think about the original source material, similar to watching a movie based on a book you’ve read. We expect how the plot will unfold, we already know the basis of the characters, and we are aware of any twists that may take place.
Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic High and Low, is an interesting reinterpretation of the original film and the novel it is based on, and a perfect example of how to do a remake successfully. Rather than make a direct remake of Kurosawa’s film, Lee took the material and made it very much a Spike Lee film. Lee modernizes the film’s locations, characters, and themes while keeping the same general plot. The result is an energetic film, but one that comes to an unfortunate sputtering finale.
Denzel Washington gives a spectacular performance as David King, a successful music producer who is known for having the best ears in the music industry. He has built an empire with Stackin’ Hits Records, but the label is now struggling due to the state of the music industry. In an attempt to keep Stackin’ Hits from being sold to an AI-focused studio, King plans to buy enough shares to buy a majority stake in the company and run it his way. To do this, King must liquidate his entire portfolio and put another mortgage on his beautiful Brooklyn penthouse.
King gets the money, but his purchase is halted when he receives a phone call saying his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), has been kidnapped. The kidnapper wants $17.5 million in Swiss francs, which would all but kill King’s purchase of Stackin’ Hits and crush him financially. It is discovered that the kidnapper didn’t kidnap King’s son, but rather Kyle (Elijah Wright), Trey’s best friend and the son of King’s driver (Jeffrey Wright). The kidnapper (revealed later to be rapper A$AP Rocky, in an electric performance) still wants the $17.5 million, but King’s decision is no longer as simple as it was before. Does he pay the ransom and lose everything he works for, or not pay in hopes the kidnapper does not harm Kyle and keep his public image intact?
The first half of Highest 2 Lowest is a modernized version of High and Low with a few changes. While the film’s setting and the profession of our main character change, the biggest changes come from the themes that Lee layers into the film. Both films deal with the moral conundrum of morality versus self-interest as David King and Kingo Gondô, the main character in Kurosawa’s film, played by Toshirô Mifune, must decide to pay the ransom and lose everything they worked for their future, or not pay it and watch the repercussions unfold. In Kurosawa’s film, the other major theme was the disparity between the rich and poor, but Lee’s film doesn’t look at that. Instead, Lee made a film that looks at the battle between talent and fame, a battle that seems to be getting bigger with every passing day in the art world. Highest 2 Lowest fits right alongside Ryan Coogler’s Sinners as a 2025 film that is deeply rooted in music; it’s almost a bigger part of the movie than the actual plot. Lee shows love to Black culture and Black artists throughout the film, and the conversations about music throughout are a fascinating look inside how Lee, a man who has directed some of the most iconic music videos of all time, sees the music industry today. Despite changing one of the core themes, it works well when modernizing a film that is over sixty years old.
Following a thrilling sequence where King and the police are prepared to catch the kidnapper by agreeing to give him the money in a chase through a New York City subway, Highest 2 Lowest felt like it rushed to its end. Where the first half of the film is tightly constructed, entertaining, and full of great character depth, the second half of the film felt too neat considering the direction we go in. The second half of Kurosawa’s film was a police procedural, as we watched the police slowly put all the clues together to try and find the kidnapper. Lee goes a different way and makes the cops all but irrelevant, and leans more towards a vigilante-style ending where King starts doing his own investigating. Lee knows that Denzel is the star, and we want to see him find the kidnapper, so I was okay with this change, but it felt incredibly rushed. There wasn’t that much tension in King trying to find the kidnapper, and he figures it out relatively quickly, which alleviates a lot of the suspense of finding the kidnapper and King trying to save his empire by finding his money. While I enjoyed some sequences during this part of the film, most of them featuring A$AP Rocky, the last half of Highest 2 Lowest came to a puttering stop following a great first half.
Still, Spike Lee is one of the best and most unique filmmakers we have in Hollywood today. Nobody makes a movie like Spike, and you always know when you’re watching a Spike movie. Highest 2 Lowest has all the hallmarks of a Spike Lee and is an entertaining and stylish modernization of a classic film.
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