Review | 21 Bridges film review: Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman plays police detective in run-of-the-mill thriller
- There’s nothing new or engrossing about this uninspiring cops and robbers thriller where Boseman looks like he is half asleep in the lead role
- It’s the sort of film you’ve seen a thousand times before, and done with much more style and pizazz
2/5 stars
There are waves of excitement in 21 Bridges, but not enough of them. There’s a plot, but not enough of one. And there are fine performances too, but – again – not enough of them. Brian Kirk’s cop thriller, set across one night in New York, is the sort of film you’ve seen a thousand times before, and done with much more pizazz.
Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman plays Andre Davis, an NYPD detective who specialises in taking down cop killers. His father – as we see in the preamble – was also a policeman, a good sort dead before his time. Watching over the coffin at his funeral was a young Andre.
In the present day, Boseman’s lawman is called in after a robbery at a high-end wine merchant ends violently. No, there wasn’t a run on Chateau Lafite Rothschild. This venue is a front for cocaine trafficking. Two tipped-off robbers (Stephan James, Taylor Kitsch) arrive to find 300 kilos of powder in store – far more than they were expecting.
As the cops mysteriously appear, the resulting chaos leaves eight policemen dead – shot down by Kitsch’s crack-shot gunman. Escaping by car, they run a red light – possibly the dumbest plot twist in a film full of dumbness – which immediately allows Boseman, J. K. Simmons’ NYPD captain and Sienna Miller’s single-mother detective to trace them.