‘Highest 2 Lowest’ review: surprisingly average Spike Lee thriller

A new Spike Lee joint is always cause for celebration, especially when he teams up with Denzel Washington. Highest 2 Lowest, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival this week, is their fifth collaboration together and has plenty of their usual sparkle. It’s a fun remake of great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller High And Low. Lee takes the classic kidnap plot and adds in the fizzying wordplay and NYC panache we’ve come to expect from a director who never misses a chance to big-up his beloved Big Apple.

Washington plays veteran rap mogul David King, the millionaire boss of record label Stackin’ Hits. King lives in a huge Brooklyn penthouse overlooking the East River and Manhattan with his beautiful wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and adult son Trey (Aubrey Joseph). Also in the mix is David’s godson Kyle (Elijah Christopher), the child of David’s old pal and chauffeur Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright). David is in the middle of a complex deal aiming to buy back the controlling interest in his label after making a bum deal a few years earlier. While he may have “the best ears in the business” and be the greatest in town at spotting rap talent, as we are often reminded over the 133 minute-runtime, some of his financial decisions are less tuned-in.

When Trey is seemingly kidnapped and the perpetrators demand a ransom of $17.5million (in large-denomination Swiss Francs so it will all fit in one backpack) from King, there’s understandable anguish and the NYPD are called in to help negotiate his safe release. However, it soon transpires the slick kidnapper has mistakenly snatched Kyle – but they still demand the same ransom. In order to get his grandson back unscathed, King is ordered on to the subway for the cash drop. The journey takes him through The Bronx amid a throng of New York Yankees fans and past a Puerto Rican parade, with Lee creating an energetic, engaging sequence. It’s a vibrant, noisy love letter to the people of New York that’s also the highlight of Highest 2 Lowest. However the rest of the film isn’t quite as exciting.

Alongside a strong performance from Washington and Wright’s edgy portrayal of a frustrated father, A$AP Rocky has an important part to play in the shenanigans, though he’s not quite as impressive here as he is in forthcoming comedy If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

Highest 2 Lowest’s action moves with pace and the dialogue is full of the rhymes and hilarious street slang Lee typically peppers his films with. However, it doesn’t feel shot and cut with his usual vitality and it’s hard to shake the question of who exactly was crying out for this remake? Neither highest or lowest, this is a distinctly average offering – but even a so-so effort from Lee and Washington is probably worth your time.