Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

IMDb plot summary: When a titan music mogul is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.

Directed by Spike Lee. Stars Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, and Ilfenesh Hadera.

Highest 2 Lowest is a Spike Lee remake of an Akira Kurosawa film, about a wealthy man whose son is kidnapped and held for ransom. He and the people around him must figure out how to respond. This is more interesting in concept than it is in execution. It seems like it would be a natural transition into the modern era, but it ultimately ends up feeling clunky, with overly expository dialogue, even given Lee's expository style. The first half is more interesting conceptually than the second, where it just becomes a typical action flick. The acting is uneven as well. Jeffrey Wright does a great job (when does he ever not?) but Denzel Washington feels didactic and stagey in the worst way. Mostly this just made me want to go back and watch the original, because although this is a great concept for a story and Wright is worth watching, so much of it is just kind of disappointing.

🎥 Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

📊 Ranked #1810/4233 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 58

beat Camp Rock (#2199 → #2278)

lost to Speak No Evil (#1148 → #1166)

lost to The Meg (#1668 → #1568)

lost to Dressed to Kill (held at #1935)

beat Blow Dry (#2060 → #2062)

lost to Away We Go (#1998 → #1986)

beat For Pete's Sake (#2029 → #2093)

lost to A Song Is Born (#2012 → #2016)

lost to State and Main (#2021 → #1937)

beat One 2 Ka 4 (#2025 → #2089)

beat The Seventh Seal (#2023 → #2021)

lost to Shine (#2022 → #1936)