21 Bridges (aka Manhattan Lockdown) (2019)

The fact Chadwick Boseman's NYPD police detective locks down Manhattan Island as a means of hunting down two police killers is just a passing detail, really, but so little else of note happens in this police procedural - just several moments of clunky editing and a completely from-the-start predictable plot - it is the closure of the twenty-one exit points from Manhattan Island that gives this ho-hum crime drama its title!

★★☆☆☆

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Black Panther (2018)

In the real world, this Marvel superhero origin story, at least you hope, marks an important cultural turning point for Hollywood away from white-male-heroes-only or whitewashed or only-white cinema releases and in this respect is a joy to behold, but in the fictional world of Wakanda, this superhero's Themyscira, the fractious politics of various tribes who scene-by-scene vacillate between steadfastly, angrily standing against Wakanda's king and a moment later fervently aligning themselves with him, or vice versa or etcetra etcetra, is boring; the movie's tonal shifts - looking and feeling at times like Wonder Woman, James Bond, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, and Shakespeare - work against your engagement; and you are ultimately left feeling less impressed with Black Panther, the vibranium-enhanced catsuit-wearing king of Wakanda, and more interested in the kick-ass General Okoye whose movie this really is.

★★★☆☆

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