they told him he couldn't close those bridges but they were wrong

Shoutout to the lady who loudly farted during the tense final standoff.

Everyone who’s supposed to be good is given all the conveniences necessary to make sure they don’t have to make any morally difficult decisions, and the main character is that really annoying archetype where the film hints at moral complexity but the only reveals with his character reveal that he’s right and in the right about everything. The whole thing also feels like an iMovie template labeled “New York movie,” with nauseating caricatures and enough Manhattan skyline b-roll to make the Apple TV jealous. And worst of all, they don’t even play Mask Off in the movie.

Far too many bridges imo

Not only is this thankfully not a story about a single bad actor on an otherwise trustworthy police force but it also manages to create an entirely convincing emotional space for a main character about which there remains some ambivalence. Here's a guy who's known as a hair trigger but who isn't painted as a hothead or a rulebreaker. Throw in the pathologizing of the guys he's initially chasing and this extends beyond ideas of corrupt authority to the damage that does to the people carrying out that authority's will. Anyway, even setting that aside this is such a sturdy thriller, with an excellent cast (Boseman in particular has some serious late-90s Denzel energy), and crafted with a lot of simple narrative and visual economy. What they used to call a solid programmer.

21 Bridges is a solid action thriller. Derivative & Predictable? Yes. But competently entertaining if you're into 80s/90s cop thrillers. The action set pieces are clean and well-shot, loved the last foot chase sequence. Chadwick Boseman's performance elevates the movie beyond any right. He had that old-fashioned movie star quality and charm. We have lost a great artist too soon.
The title of movie is click-baity tho, the bridge thing has almost zero bearing on the plot and the movie kinda forgets about it after the first act.

Rock-solid thriller. There should be 20+ released every year. We’re lucky to get 2 or 3 these days.

Man, You’d never know Chadwick was Wakandan. 
His American accent is fantastic.

Studio Exec: We all know bridges right?

Room:  murmurs in agreement

Studio Exec: But what is there were 21 bridges?!

Room: erupts In applause. carries Exec out of the room on their shoulders.

competent little cat-and-mouse, run-all-night cop conspiracy thriller with an absurdly derivative screenplay but some well-realized performances (boseman & james in particular), nice nighttime NY photography from paul cameron and some of the cleanest-shot, bloody gunfights in a movie i saw last year. they even stole the subway bit from Collateral! not really sure what the point of the bridges thing was (i thought the process of carrying out that order was gonna be factored into the action but the movie kinda forgets about it after they name-drop the titular bridges) but until the plot is tied up with a bow in the last few minutes it even maintains some decent paranoia about institutional violence, its bodily carnage and the psychology of being complicit in it. so i'll take it

21 Bridges, produced by the Russo Brothers, directed by Brian Kirk and starring Chadwick Boseman, is crammed with unevenly balanced character construction, jumbled politics and plenty of scenario problems. Boseman plays detective Andre Davis who locks down the 21 major bridges that connect to the island of Manhattan as police hunt for two cop killers. In an attempt to offset the mounting levels of ridiculousness as the narrative trudges along, the filmmakers settle on delivering non-stop mediocre set pieces and worn-out genre themes in a movie which promptly evolves into a dreadful shambles.

😔😔😔

Altbewährte Elemente die aber gut inszeniert sind. Der Titel hat aber gar nicht so viel mit dem Film zu tun. Ein Film in dem es nicht nur einen Antagonist gibt und diese auch viel Screentime bekommen.

Been wanting to check this one out for a while. I’ve always been a big fan of crime media and figured this would be right up my ally. Chadwick is a phenomenal actor, God rest his soul, but his performance was not enough to save this movie. His accent was distracting and his character didn’t have nearly enough development. This story does absolutely nothing to set it self apart from the rest of the genre and ends up feeling like an extended episode of a TNT cop show. The “reveals” can barely be called reveals because anyone with half a brain could see them coming. There’s nothing terrible about this movie it’s just quite bland and doesn’t do anything original.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

great noir aesthetics

wbk cops are the fucking worst

This movie low key rules and isn't talked about enough.

21 Bridges is really solid genre fare, and watching this makes me miss Boseman even more.

I fell completely in love with the soundtrack. It was amazing. Otherwise this movie was the definition of mhe.

Smart thriller with great performances from Bozeman and James.

Stupid but fun . Chadwick makes a good job but the rest is kinda lame .

Very sad to watch Chadwick in one of his final films. I wish it was easier to get dumb simple crime movies like this made.