Highest 2 Lowest

Unfortunately not it…

I was extremely excited, Denzel, Jeffrey, and ASAP? And it was directed by Spike Lee??? A dream come true.

Unfortunately the message of the movie and the story overall get tainted by some extremely questionable editing, extremely choppy and at times confusing, I’m not saying there is a formula that he has to follow but damn… a legend like spike Lee would sure know how his movie is supposed to be edited. Unfortunately, editing ties in directly with the next problem.

Pace, it was just off, it picked up better in the second half, but that first hour, yeesh, not enough to bully you out the film, but enough to make you question it.

Another problem was definitely the dialogue, cheesy, it seemed like the writer (which is not Spike Lee) was trying to sound super realistic and relatable, when it just fell short and didn’t work, just overall a poor screenplay.

And I don’t know how this happened, since Jeffrey Wright and Denzel are in my tops, but the acting was off, it’s not necessarily their fault, we already know that the writing wasn’t the best but if it doesn’t fall under writing, it falls under Spike, which again, seems just odd.

This is just me though, let me know what you guys think, maybe change my mind on a couple of things.

Again, I’m just confused that this was directed by Spike and it fell short for me.

Btw, loved Rocky’s tracks.

7.3/10 Had so much potential to be movie of the year. Great concept and story but so poorly done. Spike Lee took the easy way out everytime directing wise. Some scenes he’d just leave the same camera angle for five minutes for no reason. So many jump cuts at first I thought it was a mistake but it was clearly intentional because there were so many times where mid sentence it would be a jump cut. Denzel Washington was playing this character for the first part of the movie and then all of a sudden at one point he just morphed back into Denzel Washington and forgot to play his character. Again this had elements of an incredible movie but the jump cuts and the random music playing during scenes was tough to watch. During a lot of the scenes it felt like he just hit shuffle and played a random song

honestly was expecting way more.

the trailer 100% oversold me.

the beginning felt very odd & sloppy.

unnecessary amounts of classical music slapped literally all over the dialogue. felt like i was watching a classical concert rather than a movie. it added no feeling to the film whatsoever. whoever made the call should get fired lmao.

the editing was off too, all the hanshakes and hugs at the gym were not in sync jumping from cameras. if it was intentional it didn’t work tbh.

the metro scene color pallet threw me off too. went from plain apple lut to a halation film look back and forth. i was hella confused.

then we finally see a$ap which honestly was the highlight of the film. it started getting way more interesting mid movie heading to the climax.

“truncks” is such a fire track. had me head bobbing in the theater lmfao.

loved that little music vid at the end too haha.

denzel washington absolutely nailed his role. it’s always great watching him act.

have very mixed feelings about this one. it hit, but flopped at the same time idk.

definitely wouldn’t rewatch tho.

7 / 10

6/10 awkward at times but Denzel and A$AP play their roles well. Worth the watch

Overall enjoyed it, but wouldn’t watch again or recommend it to a friend. Denzel was good but not great, but always magnetic. Cast around him was pretty poor, was cool to see ASAP Rocky but he was ok. Story was eh, but not very interesting and drawn out. I liked the overall message of wealthy vs poor life and aesthetics and music in the movie. Random ASAP and Denzel music video near the end but enjoyed it

Denzel is a very wealthy old music mogul whose son gets kidnapped and the kidnapper wants 17.5 mil. He’s willing to pay the cash but then it turns out it’s not his son but his son’s friend. He hesitates but decides to pay the cash, he’s able to get the son’s friend back but loses the money. He finds out the kidnapper is a struggling rapper (ASAP Rocky) and chases him down. They have a confrontation, ASAP flees and Denzel chases him down and gets the money. Denzel visits him in jail and they discuss how ASAP wishes he was wealthy and Denzel says it’s not great and wishes he was focused on his love for music again and not the money, which explains the Highest 2 Lowest title. Then denzel starts a small company and listens to a young female artist sing a song called Highest 2 Lowest

Solid like 6.2/10 and that’s me giving a higher score because Denzel is just that guy. Plot was good but also kinda simple.