Film Review – The Bluff

February 26th, 2026 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar

The Bluff (2026) is a B-level pirate adventure that knows it’s a B-level pirate adventure. It doesn’t have the joy or earnestness of the early Errol Flynn pictures, nor does it have the size and scope of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. But what it does have is a full awareness that it is an escapist action film with surprisingly brutal set pieces. Its main goal is to entertain, and for the most part it does just that. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of moments here that defy logic, common sense, and basic physics. But for what it is, it’s not bad. Sometimes, a movie that is “just ok” is more than enough to fill up our time.

Director Frank E. Flowers (who also co-writes with Joe Ballarini) sets up the narrative as straightforward as can be. Ercell (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) is a wife and mother living on a remote Caribbean island in the mid 1800s. Her life wasn’t always warm weather and sandy beaches. Once, she was known as “Bloody Mary,” a pirate with deadly fighting skills. She retired from pirate life in hopes of peace and quiet with her family. Unfortunately, Ercell’s hopes get rudely interrupted. Her former crew – led by the dastardly Captain Connor (Karl Urban) – kidnapped her husband (Ismael Cruz Córdova). They have arrived at the island in search of gold and, more importantly, to force Ercell to confront her past. The story becomes a fight for survival, as she – along with her son (Vedanten Naidoo) and sister-in-law (Safia Oakley-Green) – try to avoid Connor’s wrath.

The writing constructs the characters with stereotypical personality traits. Ercell is depicted as a stern but compassionate mother and wife, but when the going gets tough can flip a switch and become a ruthless killing machine. Most of her dialogue is made up of classical action hero one-liners, none of which are badass enough to be memorable. Chopra Jonas fills the requirements of the role well. She’s game for the choreography and stunts and performs them all convincingly. Karl Urban plays the villain with a permanent thousand-yard glare on his face. Captain Connor is cold blooded in his methods, and Urban inhabits his evildoing with power and intimidation. During the action scenes, he flips and twirls and shoots and stabs with strength and ferocity but with the intricacy of a dancer. There isn’t much nuance to Connor’s behavior – he’s your typical pirate bad guy. Urban makes the most of what is given to him. His ability to play such a brawny figure reminds us that we need that Dredd (2012) sequel sooner rather than later. 

The Bluff is more violent than we might expect. Once Connor and his minions arrive on the island, it becomes an all-out bloodbath with bodies dropping everywhere. Flowers’ direction (along with Greg Baldi’s cinematography and Lisa Lassek’s editing) keeps in all the gory bits, including – but not limited to – bodies getting stabbed, shot, and blown to smithereens. One over the top sequence has a character getting hit by a cannonball at point blank range with the results (as you can imagine) being pretty messy. All the big set pieces are designed in such a way that doesn’t make much sense. During a nighttime scene where Ercell infiltrates Connor and his men, she lures them to an open area where she has laid out a field of grenades ready to explode at the pull of a string. Setting up such a trap would take hours, and yet Ercell does it in mere minutes. The same thing happens later inside cavernous tunnels, where she and her family construct Home Alone (1990) style traps to pick off their assailants one by one. Not only are the contraptions approaching Rube Goldberg levels of complexity, but there’s also no way they could have been set up so quickly. Of course, the movie isn’t concerned with these details, and maybe that’s for the better.

There’s a lot of goofiness in The Bluff. I especially liked the moment when Ercell looks out her window to see Connor’s men approaching and then decides to lock her door. Mind you, this takes place in the middle of the night. Apparently, on this island people leave their doors unlocked at all times of the day. On the flipside, the production does offer some nifty and clever action sequences. There are several fight scenes that are shot in one continuous take. An early stand out features Ercell taking on the previously mentioned home invaders. Although the fight is relegated to a confined room, the camera movement whips back and forth and side to side, ducking underneath tables and around furniture to capture every punch and kick. Another memorable instance brings us back into the caves, where the pitch-black darkness is lit only with the muzzle flashes of gunfire. This creates a strobe-like effect, following Ercell as she takes down her enemies like a stealthy assassin. 

The action has plenty to offer to make this a worthwhile watch. We can’t quite say the same for everything else. The special effects and computer aided imagery are noticeably manufactured, incorporating that plasticky, artificial sheen. When characters look out over the ocean into the sunset, we’re pretty sure they are looking at a greenscreen (or nothing at all). The dynamic between the characters – specifically Ercell’s relationship with her husband and her shared history with Captain Connor – comes right out of the cheesy melodrama playbook. And worst of all, the narrative leaves room for sequels should this become a hit. Just about every other movie today is more concerned with creating a larger universe rather than telling a solid, contained story.

The Bluff won’t go down as a classic pirate adventure. But you know what? That doesn’t matter. It’s entertaining from start to finish, has plenty of thrills to keep us engaged, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It strikes a good balance between serious and silly. This is one of those “Turn Your Brain Off For Two Hours” movies and shouldn’t be seen as anything more than that. 

Dredd, Errol Flynn, Featured, Frank E. Flowers, Greg Baldi, Home Alone, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Joe Ballerini, Karl Urban, Lisa Lassek, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Safia Oakley-Green, The Bluff, Vedanten Naidoo