Highest 2 Lowest Reviews Praise Spike Lee’s Denzel Washington-Led Movie

The Highest 2 Lowest reviews are beginning to pour in after the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, with many praising Spike Lee’s adaptation starring Denzel Washington and ASAP Rocky.

What are the Highest 2 Lowest reviews saying?

Reviews have begun to pour into Rotten Tomatoes. While the film doesn’t have an official score yet, many critics are praising the movie, which is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s original film High and Low.

The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab called the film an “entertaining crime thriller” that doesn’t manage up to live up the hype of Lee and Washington’s previous collaborations, but is still a good time.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw praised the film’s energy and life, while Variety’s Peter Debruge said the legendary director has taken the movie to “new highs, delivering a soul-searching genre movie that entertains while also sounding the alarm about where the culture could be headed.”

TheWrap’s Steve Pond also praised the leads, saying the film was a showcase for a “classic powerhouse” in Washington, and an upstart star in ASAP Rocky.

“When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the ‘best ears in the business’, is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma,” the official synopsis reads. “Brothers Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern-day New York City.”

The script comes from William Alan Fox. Both Highest 2 Lowest and Kurosawa’s High and Low are loosely based on a 1959 novel titled King’s Random by Ed McBain.

Lee and Washington previously collaborated on 1990’s Mo’ Better Blues, 1992’s Malcolm X (which earned Washington an Academy Award nomination), 1998’s He Got Game, and 2006’s Inside Man. Lee also recently worked with Washington’s son, John David Washington, on 2018’s BlacKkKlansman movie.

Highest 2 Lowest will have its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival later this month. It will be released in United States theaters on August 22, 2025 from A24 before it then will be available to stream on Apple TV+ on September 5, 2025.

Source: Comingsoon.net