21 Bridges

What makes this police action thriller rise above the usual ‘cop out for vengance’ movie is the performance of Chadwick Boseman.  I wasn’t sure about another action oriented cop drama.  But I loved him as Jackie Robinson in ’42’ and as T’Challa in ‘Black Panther,’ and so I was willing to give his latest a go.  In this movie, he takes on a role that Denzel Washington might have played back in the day.  The plot is simple.  Two young men are interrupted in the middle of a robbery by some policmen.  When the dust and bullets finally clear,  seven officers are dead.  Precinct Captain McKenna (J.K. Simmons) is out for vengeance for his men, and feels that rogue detective, Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman) – who has used his weapon to kill 8 suspects in as many years – is the only person who can make this right.  Davis is saddled with a with a tough partner in Narcotics agent Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller).  She seems to know her stuff, but is that all she knows? The perps are caught on a traffic camera, and identified.  Andre is able to deduce that they are probably still in Manhatten.  In a somewhat unlikely plot device, all 21 bridges that lead into Manhattan are blocked off so that no one can get in or out, including the killers.  As Davis gets closer to the perps, he begins to suspect that not all is as it seems.  The resolution is tense and action packed, if not totally believable.  But, if you like action thrillers, there is nothing here that will disappoint you.