Speaker #0This is my favorite video, and I'm going to show you how to do it. of Highest to Lowest starring Denzel Washington and a Spike Lee joint marking their first collaboration in over what 20 years since Inside Man and this film is based on a 1958 novel King's Ransom and a remake of the 1963 Japanese film High and Low and the synopsis for Highest to Lowest When a powerful music mogul is targeted by a ransom plot, he is forced to fight for his family and legacy while jammed up in a life or death moral dilemma. And starring alongside Denzel Washington is a stack cast. You have Jeffrey Wright, John Douglas Thompson, Dean Weathers and A$AP Rocky. Everybody. Yes, Mr. Rihanna, he is in this film. And I was a little skeptical about watching this movie. And the reason being, it's for no fault of the movie, is Spike Lee. Because Spike Lee, as much as I love him, grew up on his films, I love, you know, School Days, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X. the list goes on and on and on but as of late i haven't been enjoying spike lee joints uh if you will for uh for for the last let's say 20 ever since inside man to be honest with you since he teamed up last with denzel washington it's been real hit or miss and you know spike lee has a particular style that he has always been with him. all the way from the beginning with she's gotta have it i mean it is it's a spike lee joint you know there's no doubt no matter what he is adapting what a whatever story he is telling you know it's a spike lee film and lately he kind of been just going hard in the paint with his vision and i know that's what directors are supposed to do but you also want to tell a cohesive story and i haven't really felt that from spike lee as of late but the most the most discouraging thing that kind of rubbed me the wrong way lately uh at least of his latest films was his remake of old boy and oh boy the original was just a classic or is a classic i love that movie and when he did the american remake of it and spike lee made it i was automatically curious spike lee oh boy that just doesn't that marriage i don't see that working out and in the film did not work out for me at all it was it was like uh somewhat of a shot for shot remake at least he attempted to but still tried to add his own flavor and style to it and it just did not go together well. So him remaking this film high and low which I do remember watching I haven't watched a lot of Japanese cinema throughout my life But I do remember watching high and low, you know, Akira Kurosaka's classic film the from the 60s. I Believe I caught it on Accident one time. Well, not really accident well it was an accident but it was just so happened that i uh was reading up about it because i was hearing so much about it around the time that i watched it uh so i end up watching it and i thought it was really really excellent movie i enjoyed it so that leads us to this film highest and lowest and once again i had the same feelings going into it and it's not just spike lee some some films you should just leave alone you know doing a an Americanized retelling of the story sometimes the story gets through no matter where it's coming from you know so I didn't feel that this movie needed to be remade but I went ahead grint my teeth and watched the movie and the movie is nothing like the original even though is elements of it it follows pretty much the same plot line but this is a Spike Lee film through and through this is his movie this is denzel's movie it's a different story and it's just along the lines pretty much following that outline but not telling the same story and for that reason i appreciated it immensely i really did have a a really good sit down watching this movie now it isn't perfect it is like i said it is a spike lee film um and when it comes to spike lee either you like his movies or you hate his movies there's no in between it's very rarely you you would you would come out of a spike lee joint and say oh it was all right It is either you like it or you don't. And you know, for the most part, through his a luxurious career, you've liked them. At least I have. He is an amazing filmmaker and he directed a really, really good film for the majority of it. Now there is portions of this movie that I sat there and wondered, what is this film about? What are we doing? In particular, the first 20 minutes of this film. the first 20 minutes of this movie and this movie is like two hours and 10 minutes long i believe somewhere around that around that for the first 20 minutes i was completely lost i was i was like i was so confused on what story are we telling and in the grand scheme of it all once we get to the end of the film and you think back on the rest of the movie those first 20 minutes they could have kept they they really it really didn't need to be in the movie and it moved so slow so slow and i thought we was halfway once we got through like that first act i really thought we was at the the uh the third act of the film i really thought like okay we should be wrapping this up soon it just felt like it was dragging but once you get past those 20 minutes the movie hits the gas man and i mean to the floor It really... started telling a story that I was 100% invested in. That's when everybody, it was like everybody just woke up at that point. Spike Lee, Denzel, the supporting cast, the writers, the cinematographer, even the composer, everybody just woke up at that point. And we were just thrusted into this different film. And the movie was... very intense at parts uh very intriguing they had some really thrilling moments and uh deep family drama and uh some philosophical questions that you have to ask yourself you know as a parent as a friend and stuff like that it really touched in on all of that and i was i was sitting there scratching my head like what would i do in this situation you know it's you start questioning and i'm not going to get into the point in case you don't know anything about the plot of this film or haven't seen the original or read the book i don't want i don't want to spoil anything for anybody because this is a really good story and it kind of caught me off guard because it got to the point i forgot i forgot what the film was really about you know that's what that 20 minutes did i guess maybe that was the point maybe i'm looking at it in a different way that it shouldn't be but anyways uh uh once we get into the main storyline oh my god this was so good honest to god the first 20 minutes of the movie i thought we finally reached a point in our lives where denzel washington was simply doing something for a paycheck it felt like a paycheck performance from denzel and that would have marked the first time in his career because the dude is money in every single movie that he's in he's denzel freaking washington right you know but for the first few minutes of this movie i'm sitting there like oh my god denzel why why are you are you just doing this as a favor to spike or something i don't know what's going on but like i said once once it gets into gear it's it's denzel we are full of denzel and we are full spike and it was beautiful to watch man it it almost brings a tear to my eye because you you forget how good of a working relationship friendship that they have i'm and i'm speaking in terms of spike lee and denzel washington just think of the body of work that they've put together inside man like i mentioned malcolm x dude Need I go any further but Mobella Blues, the dude, those two dudes are money together. they work magic together you know every director or every great director needs that piece you know for martin scorsese is robert de niro or as of late has been leonardo dicaprio but you find that one actor that speaks the same language you do on on set and can can pretty much you can pretty much live vicariously through their performance and this is what these two have you know same thing with tim burton and johnny depp you know they they make magic together and so on and so forth but man it was it was beautiful and i will say this big shout out to asap freaking rocky i didn't know the dude can act uh still don't know to be a hundred to keep it a hundred he isn't the greatest thing in this movie but asap rocky and Denzel Washington have a couple of scenes together and I was 100% shocked that A$AP Rocky held his own with Denzel Washington probably the greatest actor in our generation he is going toe-to-toe with him and it was entertaining as I don't know I mean he acted his behind oh now only in the scenes when he's with Denzel actually to be honest with you he's only in scenes with Denzel but when they're like face to face it just you felt the magic yeah you felt I don't know if it was Denzel helping him through the scene or whatever the case may be or him knowing they look I'm I'm sharing the stage with Denzel Washington. I gotta bring my A-game ASAP, no pun intended, and he did. I gotta give kudos to him, man. I love ASAP Rocky in this movie. Probably my best, my, oh, not the best performance, but my favorite performance in the film. Really, really good. The only knock I have on his performance, we didn't get to see it enough. That's my only knock on it. Speaking of knocks, this is my final knock and final note on this film. Going back to Spike. Love you, Spike. But Spike Lee is notorious for not knowing how to end a movie. And he did not know how to end this movie. This movie had about five endings. and i didn't know why it just drug on after we got to a uh satisfying climactic end the movie kept going for like 15 minutes it you had about seven different scenes that take place i'm like what this got to do with the story it was just so much going on at the end of the movie and now granted everything that was there wrapped up plot lines and all this here didn't really leave anything open-ended so i i get i get that i respect that but it just wasn't done in an efficient time to me it just drug on at the end because you you amped up you full of adrenaline from everything that you were uh experiencing just 10 minutes earlier you know when we get to this uh final resolution to the problem that we were facing in this film and we're still going it's like okay uh then you get a scene thrown in there that was shot like a music video and i'm like where is this coming from and why is this here it's just spike lee just does things bro he just but i will say this i'm just noting this now but he's done this in so many films in the past that when i first saw it i'm like why are we why did he do it you know pretty much the same argument i'm making now and later on in life after two or three viewings i start to appreciate it so maybe maybe i'll get that with highest and low highest to lowest uh but uh right now i'm like come on man let's let's wrap this up baby uh where's the sand man with the hook let's put this one to bed But I will say it no matter how slow it started and pretty much slow that it ended, the middle of this was so juicy and fulfilling that it outdid all of my little gripes and pissing and moaning that I have about the movie. Overall, I enjoyed it and I highly recommend it. Highest to lowest. the new spike lee joint starring denzel washington gets a letter grade of a c plus yeah it is good man it is good i will say this had this movie come out like 30 years ago it would have it would have did bananas it would have did it would have it would have topped the box office tight because this this is more of a 90s late 90s maybe early 2000s film it it didn't feel like it fit in 2025 with the subject matter that was involved in the film but with all that aside it was still a pretty doggone good movie i would like to know did you check out highest to lowest Do you plan to check out Highest to Lowest? And what is your favorite Denzel Washington-Spike Lee collaboration? I would love to know. Email the show, kbradiopodcasts at gmail.com. You can also search for the KB Radio Network on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. Also, don't forget about YouTube. Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind. And don't. Forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever you are currently listening to the concession stand, here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody, thank you for joining me for this review of Highest to Lowest. I want you all to know that I love you. Continue to love everyone. And until we speak again, you all be blessed.
