21 Bridges (4 Stars)

I wanted to see this film in the cinema this year, but the Coronavirus came in the way. I could have seen it in its first week, but I waited until the third week, and the cinemas were closed at short notice. That was a shame. Now Chadwick Boseman's death has prompted me to buy the film on Blu-ray.

Chadwick plays Andre Davis, an NYPD detective who has a reputation as a trigger-happy killer. He's interviewed by Internal Affairs, but he defends himself, saying that he only ever shot anyone in self defence.

After this introduction, the rest of the film takes place over a nine hour period, from 11 pm to 8 am. Two ex-military crooks break into a wine bar to steal cocaine. Their tip off told them 30 kilograms of cocaine was being stored, but there's actually 300 kilograms. They try to leave with as much as they can carry, but a police patrol is outside. They kill eight police officers and flee.

The case is assigned to Andre, but a narcotics detective, Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller), has to assist him. He doesn't want to give the robbers a chance to escape, so he makes a request for Manhattan to be sealed overnight. The island's 21 bridges and four tunnels are closed for public transport, while extra police are called in from outside. Nobody can get in or out of Manhattan from 1 am till 7 am.

We see that Andre's reputation as a killer is exaggerated. He wants to catch the robbers alive, whereas the other police on the case want to kill them to avenge their colleagues.

This is a very good action thriller. The action doesn't slow down for most of the film. I admit that the last 20 minutes move too slow. We already know what's going to happen, so we're impatient for the film to get on with it, until it finally breaks out in a short epilogue. That's the closest to spoilers I intend to get.

I'm impressed by Chadwick Boseman's performance. Previously I'd only seen him as the Black Panther, but he was a competent all-round actor.

Success Rate:  - 0.5

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de