(Thus the movie’s title…though once the roads are blocked the film never returns to them. He’s got five hours before the quarantine will be lifted and rush hour begins. To keep the crooks from leaving town, Davis imposes a 1 a.m.-to-sunup closure of all 21 bridges leading into and out of Manhattan Island. Burns is a single mom with a Brooklyn accent. Davis is himself the son of a slain cop who regularly faces Internal Affairs hearings for his marksmanship (eight fatal shootings in as many years) he maintains he never fires first. On the other side of the coin are detectives Andre Davis (Boseman) and Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller, almost unrecognizable with no makeup), thrown together to manage a city-wide manhunt for the cop killers.Īgain, an attempt is made to provide some depth to the characters.

Michael basically finds himself in over his head.

Michael and Ray are ex-military Ray is by far the more ruthless of the two, but Kitsch gives him just enough charisma to keep us interested. The filmmakers at least try for plausible back stories. In any case, there’s a gun battle that leaves eight of New York’s finest headed to the morgue. Maybe they are looking for a late-night snack. To further complicate matters, a bunch of cops show up. They’ve been told there’s 30 kilos of cocaine hidden in the eatery they are perplexed to discover it’s more like 300 kilos, way more than they can carry out. In the opening sequence a couple of well-armed thugs, Michael and Ray (Stephan James, Taylor Kitsch) hit a posh New York City restaurant late at night after closing. The first half of Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan’s screenplay (and by far the better half) is a manhunt told from the points of view of two couples - a pair of crooks on the run and a pair of cops on their heels. Not even the presence of the versatile Chadwick Baseman (whose roles range from Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall to the Black Panther) and the eerily transforming Sienna Miller can elevate this piece above “mehhh” status. To the extent that it delivers a series of adrenaline-stoked action sequences and a ridiculously high body count, Brian Kirk’s “21 Bridges” should satisfy audiences looking for a thrill. “21 BRIDGES” My rating: C (Opens wide on Nov.

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