For most of his career, moviegoers could count on a new Spike Lee film every 1-2 years. But somehow it’s been five years since his last joint, Da 5 Bloods in 2020, which arrived when his take on racial politics and injustices collided with real world events. Now he’s back for a fifth go-around with Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest, a reimagining of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film, High and Low.

Washington stars as music executive David King, who’s looking to save the record label he started from a corporate takeover. His leveraging of his assets to buy out a partner gets upended when Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of his friend and chauffeur, Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright), is mistakenly kidnapped by someone who thought he was King’s son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph).

King is forced to wrestle with his conscience over whether to use ransom money for Kyle, money that was supposed to rescue Trey before the mistake is discovered. The pressure from the police, Paul, and his family is one thing, but the fact that he would also potentially be giving away the money that would save his company makes the decision all that much more difficult.

Lee, working from a script by first-time screenwriter Alan Fox, once again showcases New York City for all it’s worth. King and his family live in a lavish high-rise apartment with a balcony that faces Manhattan, allowing for views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Financial District, and more. The story takes the action all over the city, with Lee making sure to include scenes set in the Bronx to feature boisterous Yankees fans.

Unfortunately, the sightseeing winds up being the best part of the movie. Lee and Fox deliver some clunky storytelling, with the flow from scene to scene rarely feeling natural. The drama of certain situations never reaches its potential because Lee seems to be focused on things like showing small moments from different angles instead of getting to the heart of the matter.

It’s also never clear what kind of story Lee is trying to tell. The most obvious topic would seem to be the current state of the music business and the place of Black artists within it, but the kidnapping plot mostly pushes that to the side. The push-and-pull of the ransom drama, as well as the perpetrator of the kidnapping, tries to be a commentary on the corrosive influence of wealth, but it fails to hit home.

And then we get to the acting. Washington and Wright are each Oscar nominees who usually garner respect just with their presence, but both give subpar performances that are indicative of the poor acting from many other cast members. Stilted line deliveries abound throughout the film, almost as if Lee was limited to just one take with every scene and just decided to leave them as is. The more bad lines pile up, the more baffling it becomes that they were allowed to show up in the final product.

Lee is responsible for some truly great films over the past 30-40 years, but Highest 2 Lowest will not be joining that list. It has flashes of the director’s trademark stylish moves, but the storytelling and acting blunt any deeper meaning that Lee might have been trying to impart.

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Highest 2 Lowest opens in theaters on August 15.