Our movie today opens in the past, at a funeral for a policeman who was killed on the job. Sitting front and center, next to his mother, is thirteen-year-old son, Andre. We next see Andre; nineteen years later and of course he’s a cop, following in the footsteps of his father. Andre has quite the reputation, in that he has shot and killed eight people in nine years. Not a record, but still enough that he is very familiar to the internal affairs department.
We next see two guys breaking into a closed for the night restaurant. Michael and Ray were contracted to steal thirty kilos of cocaine that is temporarily stored in the wine cellar of the restaurant. What they find is not thirty kilos, but three hundred and they know they are in way over their heads. Making things worse is a couple of cops are upstairs nonchalantly knocking on the back door of the restaurant.
Again, something is not right about the way the cops are so relaxed knocking, and the next thing you know there is a massive gunfight. Michael and Ray end up killing all the cops and their reinforcements, taking a small percentage of the cocaine and flee the scene. Of course Andre is brought into the case by his late father’s captain, played by J.K Simmons. Question, how many cop roles has Simmons played in his career? I don’t know but he does specialize in this type of role. We are also introduced to Narcotics Detective Frankie Burns, (played by Sienna Miller) who is assigned as Andre’s partner by Simmons for this case. Okay, Sienna Miller’s NY accent is so cringe worthy, as soon as she started speaking my rating for this movie plummeted. As the movie goes on the accent tones down (thank you Jesus), but her voice was a caricature of the stereotypical New Yorker.
The FBI come into the location, and because of the amount of cocaine still on the scene, they want to take the case over. However, because sure shot Andre is on the case, they give him till 5:00am to find the killers. (Can’t all mass killings be solved in less than five hours?) If he doesn’t find the killers, the FBI would take over.
Andre takes the challenge, and his first order is to close off Manhattan, trapping Michael and Ray. I had no idea there were twenty-one bridges leading into and out of Manhattan, but there are and that’s where the movie title comes from. Oh, and they also cut off all the trains, subways etc., but they don’t count….just the bridges. This is a predictable movie, the only change up is having, wait for it…..a black actor as the lead!! Chadwick Boseman does a good job as Andre, but I don’t think the role was much of a stretch for him.
Twenty One Bridges, rated C is a perfect Red Box rental, or better yet a Netflix original movie (if they sexed it up). If you must see it, definitely go to a matinee. I just realized this is the shortest review I’ve written in a very long time. But, not much to talk about, not original, you see it coming from a mile away…lets move on.
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