As a card-carrying fan of the crime-thriller genre, I was won over a couple years ago by MESSAGE FROM THE KING, a pulpy and agreeably violent picture starring Chadwick Boseman (BLACK PANTHER) as a South African cop who arrives in Los Angeles to eke out some familial justice. In the film, Boseman proved he could still be incredibly charismatic even when mercilessly beating down low-lifes with a bike chain. So when I heard Boseman had produced and starred in another action-oriented crime drama, I was optimistic that it might be another underrated gem.

On paper, 21 BRIDGES does offer some interesting wrinkles to a standard cops and robbers story by introducing Boseman as a New York City cop in the DIRTY HARRY mold -- a little too willing to use his sidearm. It then spends the rest of the movie playing out a scenario that asks, what if Dirty Harry’s willingness to violence was purposefully used against him? It’s not a bad idea, especially since the question of what leads to shootings by the police remains relevant.

Unfortunately, the movie is more interested in stale plot twists, uninspired chase sequences and unsuspenseful shootouts than it is in digging into the fertile ground of race and violence in the United States. Yes, our robbers are veterans from the war in Afghanistan, but this too is more of a half-hearted plot point than a chance to say anything about the times we live in.

Another big missed opportunity is the location. The title is a reference to how many bridges there are to the island of Manhattan, and how those bridges get shut down after eight police officers are killed. But not only do the subsequent plot twists make the title a pointless red herring, there’s nothing about the movie, aside from a valiant attempt at a local accent from J. K. Simmons, that makes this a New York story. Unlike MESSAGE FROM THE KING, which used the dark underbelly of Los Angeles to great effect, nearly all the scenes in 21 BRIDGES take place in blandly anonymous locations that could stand in for any major metropolis around the world.

In fact, with minor changes, 21 BRIDGES could be turned into a top shelf episode of TATORT, and maybe if I watched it on TV during a lazy Sunday evening I would like it a whole lot more. But as a film featuring talents like Boseman, Sienna Miller, Taylor Kitsch, and a criminally underused Keith David, this is a letdown.

Sean Erickson