21 Bridges
21 BRIDGES - STX Entertainment
A Frankenstein’s monster of various cop movie cliches thrown together with no rhyme or reason, 21 Bridges is dead on arrival. Dull, uninteresting, and rushed, there is not a single aspect of the film that stands out and several qualities are downright poor. It is the most nothing experience of the year so far.
21 Bridges follows Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman), an NYPD detective, who has to hunt down Michael Trujillo (Stephan James) and Ray Jackson (Taylor Kitsch), two criminals who are on the run after murdering several police officers during a heist gone wrong.
Given how talented the cast is, the performances should be equally as impressive but sadly fails to ignite any passion on screen. Boseman is passable in the leading role but his accent is not at all consistent; J.K. Simmons as Captain McKenna is saddled with such a nothing character that he does nothing to deserve any of the blame for his mediocre effort. James and Kitsch’s characters and performances are not much better with significant screen time but little screen presence.
Sienna Miller, who plays Frankie Burns — a narcotics detective assigned as Davis’s partner — is incredibly subpar and has more stilted dialogue than anyone else in this sizable cast list. Speaking of the dialogue, it is frequently terrible, making specific sequences laughable. None of the exchanges between characters feels genuine so the viewer can never grow to care about any of them with what is a disastrous screenplay from Matthew Michael Carnahan and Adam Mervis.
The plot feels at once both convoluted and straightforward, full of twists that are so obvious that they can be predicted from the first ten minutes and absolutely no rhythm to the pacing, making it feel far longer than it is. There is no weight behind any arc or plot point due to such a high level of disconnect from everything on the screen.
Brian Kirk’s direction is bland and workmanlike, making him feel more like a journeyman and placeholder than a man with a clear vision. The cinematography by Paul Cameron is similarly flat, with a few clever dolly shots during a chase sequence being the only memorable highlight. The editing during the action scenes is relatively choppy and annoying. The score is probably the best part of the film, from composers Alex Belcher and Henry Jackman. It is never at any point amazing but there is a clear noir influence present that makes it refreshing when compared to everything surrounding it.
There is not much more to say on the positive end about 21 Bridges. It is so surface level and forgettable that the memory of it will slowly fade away, feeling like a disposable bargain bin 90s thriller that somehow got released in 2019. Why the Russo Brothers decided to put their names on this product remains to be seen. There are a considerable amount of good films out in theatres right now so there is no excuse to waste money or time on this piece of trash.
21 Bridges is released November 22nd, 2019.