This film marks Denzel Washington’s and Spike Lee’s fifth collaboration. They’ve done some of their best work together, and though it’s been 19 years since they were on opposite sides of the lens, they’ve got amazing working chemistry. In this retelling of a story first shot by Akira Kurosawa in 1963, adapted from an Ed McBain pulpy novel King’s Ransom, Denzel stars as David King, big time music mogul whose life is upended by news that his teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) has been kidnapped. David is in the middle of secret negotiations to acquire a majority stake in his company Stackin’ Hits to save it before they sell out to the competition. And he’s scrambling to cement a big deal for the funding he needs before the planned sale. But when the kidnappers ask for $17.5 million, he’ll do whatever it takes, even if the money is hard to pull together.
But then his son is found and it turns out the kidnappers took the wrong kid by mistake, and King David’s calculus changes. The kid they took is Kyle (Elijah Wright), David’s ex-con chauffeur and confidant Paul’s (Jeffrey Wright) son. But that ransom is all the money that David has and the question is, save his business or save the kid? It’s A LOT to pay for someone who is not your son. And David wrestles with doing the right thing.
The film is essentially two parts. The first is David in his high stakes milieu, his gorgeous penthouse, in the back of his Rolls, at his high-rise office, the master of all he surveys with a beautiful wife at home and a decent relationship with his teenage son. But the kidnapping and what follows strip away all pretense and ultimately send him out into the gritty streets of New York.
Spike Lee’s best films are always about New York, and the film begins with a gorgeous series of shots of the city set to “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” ending on David’s penthouse balcony. But the second half is out there with the people, in the subway, in the middle of a Puerto Rican Street festival, in graffiti scrawled alleys. And it is the second half where the story takes off and Denzel finds his mojo.
One of the best scenes in the film is when he and the kidnapper who turns out to be a hip-hop-star-wannabe named Yung Felon (A$AP Rocky) finally meet.
Is this Lee’s best film? Hardly. But is it entertaining? Absolutely! Denzel is still simply amazing. His every gesture speaks volumes. Yeah, I’d watch him read the phone book (if one still existed.) And Lee is always a commanding filmmaker. There are a couple of plot holes, but they don’t really diminish the fun. It’s has a great score and the story says a lot about the current state of music and what really matters in life. So I’d totally recommend seeing this one, in a theater if you can.
Collaborations: Mo Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), He Got Game (1998), Inside Man (2006), Highest to Lowest (2025).
In theaters now.