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Movie Review: Highest 2 Lowest

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The new movie “Highest 2 Lowest” is the latest Spike Lee-directed movie. His last film was five years ago, “Da 5 Bloods”, released in 2020 on Netflix. This is the 5th collaboration between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington who stars in this film as a music mogul in New York City named David King, who is a major risk taker and has built a music empire that is either doing well or about to collapse from bankruptcy.

There are several speeches in this film about risk, success, and failure that are very well written, all ultimately about what is most important in life: how hard it is to succeed, and how easy it can be to lose everything are some of the best parts of this story.

There is a huge deal that David King is trying to make with this company that surprisingly turns into a kidnapping of David’s son, Trey, played by Aubrey Joseph, and a mistake by the kidnappers that adds many story twists and impossible decisions, making this movie a standout kidnapping story.

The acting is outstanding, including David King’s best friend, Paul Christopher, played by Jeffrey Wright, and his wife, Pam King, played by Ilfenesh Hadera. Former NBA player Rick Fox plays himself as a high school basketball coach, and there are several references to his time in the NBA and especially the great playoff matchups with the Boston Celtics.

The twists towards the end of this story and the ending are very well done and never predictable, with my only negative comment involving the too-long music montage fillers at certain parts of this film.

The rap star A$AP Rocky is great in his role as Yung Felon, with some of his arguments and speeches with Denzel Washington at the end of this movie performed very impressively. The singer Sunni Valentine plays an aspiring singer Julie Tucker, with her only appearance at the end of this film, with a great performance of her song “Highest to Lowest”, trying to convince David King to sign her to a music contract.

The Rotten Tomatoes consensus of 90% is correct this time. I agree with this rating and highly recommend this film.

Movie Review: Nobody 2

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The new movie “Nobody 2” is the sequel to “Nobody”, released in 2021. This movie is almost entirely about the most violent and awkward fight scenes in the history of cinema, with the huge bus fight in the first movie being one of the most insane and crazy fight scenes ever filmed.

With this new version, there are several fight scenes as long and as crazy as the first movie, with the main character, Hutch Mansell played by Bob Odenkirk, taking on as many as eight attackers all at the same time, and despite being about five feet nine and maybe 200 pounds, Hutch manages to win every time. What is always ridiculous about movies like this, including the “John Wick” series, is that with so many guns and so many attackers all attacking at the same time, there is no way any of these fights would not result in the instant death of Hutch Mansell. The solution to this is to try to make the action scenes more believable, rather than so insane, but after all, this is a movie.

There is not much of a plot for this second installment, other than Hutch and his family, including his wife, Becca Mansell played by Connie Nielsen, and his two kids, Sammy and Brady, played by Paisley Cadorath and Gage Munroe taking a trip to an amusement park, where the arguments and fights with the townspeople starting with Gage start within minutes of their arrival. One shove of Hutch’s daughter by one of the security guards, and the insane fighting starts, and is followed by several more fights, one in a boat that is almost as impressive as the bus fight in the first movie.

Hutch’s father David, is also in the sequel, played by Christopher Lloy,d and his brother, Harry played again by RZA make the majority of their appearances during the final action scenes that resolve a huge battle at the amusement park between an evil woman, who heads a drug cartel, named Lendina, played by Sharon Stone. Two men, Hutch and a former member of the cartel, Wyat Martin, played by John Ortiz, hold off about 25 of Lendina’s soldiers, making for a finale that will remind everyone of all the John Wick movies.

Nobody 2 is not as good as the original, but the well-choreographed action fight scenes and special effects are enough to make this a solid recommendation, and I agree with the 78% Rotten Tomatoes consensus.

Movie Review: I Know What You Did Last Summer

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Far too often, it is hard to believe the movies that are chosen by executives to remake It is often difficult to understand the films chosen by executives for remakes or, in this case, a new sequel to the original “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” (1997). At its best, the original movie was a very stupid, poorly produced slasher movie that grossed only 125 million world wide. Through some demographic calculations and surveys based on the name recognition created from the original movie, the decision was made to try and make more money from the same basic idea about young people on a dangerous road who make a series of mistakes, and a young man dies.

This sequel did not have enough imagination to create a new idea, and once again, five people in their twenties are on the same kind of road overlooking a cliff, with one drunk idiot playing a game of chicken with oncoming cars at night, and once again, someone dies in a car accident. Why not think of something new? Why not have a new evil slasher character that kills people other than, once again, the faceless man in the dark raincoat who guts people with a giant fishhook? We saw this already, 28 years ago. Why do the same thing again?

This time around, there are five new characters in their twenties, Danica Richards played by Madelyn Cline, Ava Brucks played by Chase Sui Wonders – both of whom recently dated Pete Davidson. The other 3 actors involved in the car accident at the start of this movie are mostly unknown. The “hook” idea to save the box office for this bad movie is to bring back three of the main actors of the original 1997 movie, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., and a strange, misplaced dream sequence cameo from Sarah Michelle Gellar. The attempt to connect what happened in the first story with this new story failed, along with the absurd ending – an attempt to shock and surprise the audience with the unveiling of the killer. This attempt at shocking surprise turned out to be the worst part of this bad movie because it all made zero sense. The other bad part of the ending was the idiotic reappearance of people who were definitely killed in previous scenes, who for reasons unknown, are still alive despite being killed.

This time around, the critics on Rotten Tomatoes are correct with their very low 38% ratings for this bad slasher movie. I agree with this low rating and do not recommend this film. Hopefully, this is the last movie in this franchise.