Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest attempts to remake a beloved Akira Kurosawa film about the injustices of a class-stratified society all while sidestepping class. Even Denzel Washington can’t save this misfire.

I tried to give Spike Lee’s new movie Highest 2 Lowest every possible chance to have a powerful impact — so much so that I deliberately avoided rewatching the source material, Akira Kurosawa’s landmark 1963 film, High and Low, itself based on an Ed McBain novel. I haven’t seen it in decades, though I still vividly remember Toshirō Mifune’s powerhouse performance as well as just how seriously the film took the class stratification at the heart of its story.

But I needn’t have bothered. Highest 2 Lowest, which is getting a lot of critical praise even though it’s tanking at the box offic

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