{"id":116054,"date":"2025-05-20T03:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T03:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/116054\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T03:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T03:43:09","slug":"first-reactions-to-spike-lees-highest-2-lowest-say-the-kurosawa-inspired-mystery-lands-between-ambitious-and-one-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/116054\/","title":{"rendered":"First reactions to Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest say the Kurosawa-inspired mystery lands between “ambitious” and “one-note”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival is officially in full swing, and you know what that means, don\u2019t you? Reviews for some of the hottest films at the fest are pouring in hot off the presses. Not long after Denzel Washington received an honorary Palme d\u2019Or Award<\/a> for his outstanding career, the first reactions (reviews) for his new film, Highest 2 Lowest<\/a>, are here!<\/p>\n

Spike Lee directs Highest 2 Lowest from a screenplay by William Alan Fox, based on\u00a0High and Low\u00a0by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ry\u016bz\u014d Kikushima, Eijiro Hisaita, and\u00a0King\u2019s Ransom\u00a0by Evan Hunter.\u00a0Highest 2 Lowest\u00a0takes Kurosawa\u2019s classic crime thriller to New York City and tells what happens when a titan music mogul is targeted with a ransom plot.<\/p>\n

Check out some of the first reactions from entertainment outlets in the Cannes crowd below:<\/p>\n

According to Variety<\/a>\u2018s Peter Debruge, Highest 2 Lowest brings Kurosawa\u2019s classic crime thriller \u201cto new highs, delivering a soul-searching genre movie that entertains while also sounding the alarm about where the culture could be headed.\u201d Debruge says the film \u201cisn\u2019t so much a remake as a manifesto,\u201d the \u201csensational third act more than justifies what might have seemed an unnecessary update.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent<\/a> says, despite Washington\u2019s history of playing flawed heroes with heart, the seasoned actor feels \u201cwasted\u201d in Highest 2 Lowest. According to Macnab, \u201chis performance is vivid and wildly energetic, but ultimately short on emotional depth,\u201d the reviewer says about Washington\u2019s David King. \u201cThe problem is that even when King\u2019s world threatens to crumble around him, he is never dragged that low. He\u2019s always the alpha. We are not given much sense of inner turmoil or doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian<\/a> appears to have dug the film a great deal, saying Lee\u2019s film is a \u201cbig, muscular picture which aspires to the crowd-pleasing athleticism of Spike Lee\u2019s sport icons; it\u2019s very enjoyable and there\u2019s a great turn from Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Grierson of Screen Daily<\/a> says Lee\u2019s Highest 2 Lowest is an \u201cambitious, thought-provoking\u201d crime thriller. Unfortunately, Grierson says the film crumbles under its own weight. \u201cBeyond the shaky character dynamics, the plotting often feels disjointed, despite a terrific action sequence that pays homage to a similarly riveting set piece in Kurosawa\u2019s film,\u201d Grierson says in his review. \u201cBut such moments are squandered in an overstuffed story that unconvincingly also wants to tackle the materialism in the hip-hop world and the scourge of social media. Ultimately, the picture\u2019s energetic swirl comes across as slightly hollow, its barrage of themes and impulses never finding harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregory Ellwood from The Playlist<\/a> says that despite its slow start and not being one of Lee\u2019s most notable films, Highest 2 Lowest brings out the best in Washington. \u201cIt\u2019s no shame that this thriller isn\u2019t even in the top pantheon of Lee joints, as he refers to them. The man has some masterpieces on his resume. It might be in Washington\u2019s, however. He\u2019s so viscerally engaging that you want to see the movie again just to enjoy his performance. Is that a result of the collective experience of having the gang back together again? Or is Washington just on a roll?\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of critics\u2019 opinions, we urge you to see Spike Lee\u2019s Highest 2 Lowest before giving a definitive verdict. After reading some of the above-listed quotes, are you still interested in seeing the film? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

\n Source:
\n Various\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival is officially in full swing, and you know what that means, don\u2019t you?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[44058,77,52220,6080,40277,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-116054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-denzel-washington","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-highest-2-lowest","11":"tag-review","12":"tag-spike-lee","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114538099852853758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}