D+Directed by Spike Lee Starring Denzel Washington Review by Jon Kissel |  |
I don’t need Spike Lee to tell me that Denzel Washington is one of the coolest, most charismatic humans on the planet. That image, cultivated by Lee in their more productive collaborations, is self-evident every time Washington appears on screen or does an interview. The legendary movie star hasn’t lost his step, but Lee certainly has. Their latest film, an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, retitled Highest 2 Lowest, is a baffling and amateurish miss that Denzel has to repeatedly rescue from a patronizing script and Lee’s horrible choices. The man who made Malcolm X and 25th Hour has forgotten how to transition between scenes. The director of Do the Right Thing no longer knows how to match score with action. High and Low is one of the several Kurosawa’s I’ve yet to see, but there’s no way the Japanese pioneer would make a film so reverent of its protagonist, that Highest 2 Lowest smells like one of those vanity projects rich assholes make to flatter themselves, like The Room or Fateful Findings.
RSS Feed