The New York City police department employs 36,000 officers. I dunno how many of those are available at any given 1 a.m. time slot. I suspect fewer. Many fewer. But apparently there are still enough to shut down all 21 Bridges, 4 tunnels, several waterways, and all the subway cars seeking to vacate the island of Manhattan.
No, I honestly do not believe that’s realistic, either. I don’t think NYC police can shut down all exits off Manhattan at the drop of a … Drop. Even when you’re talking NYC marathon or the Thanksgiving Day parade, such requires maybe 1/3rd of the personnel and you get months lead time to prepare. Those events also happen during waking hours. But, of course, that isn’t the point. The point is: “How do we get Chadwick Boseman a turn at being an NYPD hotshot?”
Detective Andre Davis (Boseman) is a little young for this. I expect NYC detectives to be into the mob, or divorced, or addicted to pain pills and jelly doughnuts. Television has taught me many things, but the stereotype of NYC law enforcement is among the greatest. Surely you folks breakfast every morning on cynicism and crocodile tears, yes? Boseman has none of these attributes; he’s young and trim and not even close being yet another tool of a broken system. Heck, he doesn’t even look Irish. What is up with that?
Two ex-military hoods (Stephan James and Taylor Kitsch) break into a Brooklyn wine bar after hours to intercept a large drug transaction. Well, that’s just stupid right there, isn’t it? Television has impressed upon me -again and again and again- that once bricks of cocaine are involved, people are gonna die. It gets better. The load was supposed to be “30 kilos,” but the storage shows 300. This gives Michael (James) pause. Oh, now you have second thoughts? 30 keys was OK but somehow 300 is trouble … how does that work? Is there a sliding scale for what kind of vengeance you can expect? [Checks chart: “1-10 keys is fingernails, 11-50 keys is two broken finger and/or sledgehammer to the foot, 51-100 keys is …”] This is already both silly and morbid, so I’ll stop.
When cops show up, Ray (Kitsch) and Michael have to shoot everybody and flee, which they do. Detective Davis is among the first on the scene and reasons that dudes are taking their loot to Manhattan, where they will stay for an allotted amount of time to exchange them for goods and services. Geez, guys, everybody is buying experiences these days. You two have it backwards; you’re paying the experience to live for the money. Anyhoo, the detective concludes that the thieves/murderers can be isolated and caught. All he needs is for every exit out of the island to be shut down between 1 am and 5 am.
The rationale for where the criminals are going to go and how to stop them from escaping is literally thirty seconds of screentime. No rebuttal, fellas? No different POV? This plan makes it sound like all self-respecting kingpins and their lieges live in the tiny isle of Manhattan and wouldn’t dream of being anywhere else. If that’s the case, why haven’t they been arrested already? Are you sure you don’t wish to rethink the logic?
21 Bridges seemed a pretty standard NYC crime tale – detective finding the bad guys and *gasp* are there cops involved as well?! Normally, this story would involve a crooked partner and coworkers on the take so that the detective actually has to choose between friendship and law. Detective Davis is too young to have such a dilemma, so the prevailing conflict becomes, “Will the detective kill the bad guys when he has a choice to do otherwise?” But we know he won’t, hence, the outcome is a foregone conclusion; the excitement is in the chase. We’ve seen better, we’ve seen worse.
Two hired guns are deep in the shit
They got the loot are are just trying to split
But their exits are blocked
Which leaves ‘em shell-shocked
They can’t cross that bridge when they come to it
Rated R, 99 Minutes
Director: Brian Kirk
Writer: Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan
Genre: Who’s an NYPD detective this week?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Crime drama junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The kind of person who would have to work OT just show a detective can show off
