"Pirates" for Adults: Why "The Bluff" Divided Viewers into Two Camps
The pirate actioner The Bluff quietly dropped on Amazon Prime Video and—oddly—left numbers that argue with each other: 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, 5.8 on IMDb, and 2.7/5 on Letterboxd. Those figures don’t settle anything; they just show the audience split, plain and simple (or not).
Some viewers liken it to Pirates of the Caribbean gone darker and to John Wick in its fight choreography, noting the energy and the cast—Karl Urban gets singled out a lot. Others complain the plot locks into familiar grooves, characters seldom sparkle, and the lead has what critics call “script armor.” Still, even the doubters concede the fights are sharply staged and the visuals look good—there’s craft here, even if it doesn’t always charm.
Set in 1846 in the Caribbean, the story follows a former pirate nicknamed Bloody Mary who’s pulled back into violence to shield herself and her daughters from ex-crew members hunting a bounty on her head. It’s straightforward; sometimes grim, sometimes gleeful, and occasionally a little smug about its own brutality (w/ a wink or two).
Directed by Frank E. Flowers and starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Karl Urban, and Temuera Morrison, the film will please viewers who favor polished action. For everyone else, it’s a decent show of technique that doesn’t quite become something more.