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Highest 2 Lowest

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Highest 2 Lowest

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Summary

Music mogul David King receives a telephone call to say his teenage son Trey has been kidnapped. The ransom is $17.5 million in Swiss bank notes, which David and wife Pam agree to pay to bring their boy home safely while Detective Earl Bridges and his team track the abductor

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Review

A star rating of 2 out of 5.

James Mottram

Denzel Washington reunites with director Spike Lee for their fifth - and weakest - movie together, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's masterful 1963 kidnap drama High and Low. Washington plays David King, head of the New York-based Stackin' Hits Records label. With his business floundering, he faces far worse when his teenage son is targeted by kidnappers. But, in a neat twist, the criminals nab the wrong boy, instead taking the son of King's friend and driver Paul (Jeffrey Wright). King's moral dilemma - either pay up or face widespread condemnation - makes for an intriguing set-up. The performances are solid: Washington is as charismatic as ever, Wright typically accomplished and musician A$AP Rocky gives a forceful turn as the head kidnapper. But the film's tone is unfortunately erratic, with moments of comedy that defuse all tension, rendering it relatively ineffective as a thriller. It even finishes with a musical number. With nothing particularly interesting to say about social media or the music industry, this is a sloppy, schizophrenic work from Lee.

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5.5/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameDavid KingDenzel WashingtonPaul ChristopherJeffrey Wright

Crew

rolenameDirectorSpike Lee

Details

Released on

2025-09-05

Languages

English

Formats

Colour

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