Spike Lee's newest joint, Higher 2 Lower is now on AppleTV. [View all]

Not Spike’s finest concoction, I’m sorry to say. As an unintentional Big Apple travelogue, it’s nicely done. As a reimagining of a brilliant Kurasawa film, it fails miserably. One of the most inept suspense films I’ve ever seen. The acting was uneven at best with Denzel kind of dialing it in. Many of the scenes were badly edited and some of the cross-cutting was truly absurd: the subway 4 Train chase sequence intercut with an extended Eddie Palmieri salsa performance at a Puerto Rican street festival was disorienting. The musical score and the way it’s used throughout was, well, bonkers! See for yourself. I’ve always felt Spike Lee’s films were wildly uneven. This one was a big disappointment considering the past proven talent in all those involved in this hot mess. I’m sure many will disagree.