A former pirate defends her homestead from her previous crew in Frank E. Flowers’s over-the-top violent B-movie The Bluff, now on Amazon Prime.
The Bluff is a big action film, a B-movie that knows exactly what it is and plays that to the hilt. Big, brash, and self-aware, the “woman with secrets defends her homestead and family from pirates” adventure is a bloody blast. The Bluff, directed by Frank E. Flowers and written by Flowers and Joe Ballarini, is a great way to cheer on for big fight scenes, pirate mutilation, and just a sense of adventure on a lazy afternoon or a movie night with friends.
Pirates have come to a small Caribbean Island, populated by a small village and various homesteads, including that of Ercell, played by a captivating Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and her family. These aren’t gentlemen pirates, of class and honor. Oh no, otherwise we wouldn’t have a movie. They are bloodthirsty buccaneers, and when the sniff of gold hits their nostrils, they head to a lonely island. Led by Captain Conner, played by a totally leaning into the cheese of it all Karl Urban, the crew picked up a merchant vessel. One of the merchants has a gold bar familiar to them. Of a treasure long “stolen” by a former shippmate. That shippmate is Ercell, known to them as Bloody Mary, now lives with that merchant (her husband), his sister, and their young son. With the pirates besieging the island, her old life comes back, and she’s forced to take them all out as best she can. And she does so well in an over-the-top bloody action flick.
The draw for The Bluff is the action and bloodletting. And, yes, there will be blood. So much. As the pirates head towards Mary’s home, Mary (and her family) move about the island to avoid them. Of course, they shall meet here and there and take on one another. It’s done with an elan, a sly smile of “this is what you’re here for.” Traps are sent and tripped, swashbuckling action feeds the energies, toothy animals attack, and plenty of explosions keep the proceedings moving at a cutting speed. If there is a way to rend an arm from the socket with the cheer-worthy spray of blood, it’ll happen. Within all that are so many amazing fights. With Karl Urban of Dredd, Lord of the Rings, and The Boys, and Boba Fett himself, Temuera Morrison (as his second in command… the rest of the crew are just fodder) on the pirate crew, you know it’ll be a treat. The choreography, presumingly by credited fight coordinator Chad Griffin, is smartly designed, performed, and shot. It’s clear, and with few cuts, allowing the endless number of stuntman pirates to get their death at Bloody Mary’s hands. There’s an incredible physicality to it all.
However, it may be biting the hand that feeds, as well-seen choreography comes from the modern streaming lighting. Outside of the caves, which still look artificial, it has the “light it all” overdone flatness. No grain, no life to how it’s shot. Far too clean to really get a heft.
Prianka Chopra Jonas carries the film so well. She not only can main and murder her way through the attackers, but has a wonderful heft for her character in her connections with her son, husband, and sister-in-law. Karl Urban is a great B-movie bad guy. He’s having a total blast and is so much fun to watch. Morrison is as eyecatching as ever, with film using his simmering menace to great effect. The other characters, including Safia Oakely-Green as the sister and law, and Gary Beadle as a kind man in the doomed port town, serve well. The rest? Just fodder.
The Bluff isn’t a great film, but it’s a fun one. It serves its specific need well. Nothing is especially deep, and the action is fantastic. Definitely worth a viewing or two, especially in the right setting of something dumb and fun. Urban, Morrison, and Jonas are great leads, lending an extra push to making it more notable than otherwise. Check it out when you’re in the mood for some period piratical bloodshed.