The Bluff is having a great time, extending a welcoming invitation to audiences to join their merry band of pirates. Set almost entirely on one island in the very (very) late days of the era of high-seas piracy, features a revenge-love story with deliciously scenery-chewing Karl Urban and a skull-crushing Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

Co-written by Joe Ballarini and director Frank E. Flowers (who himself hails from the Cayman Islands, where the story is set, and has his own actual pirate lineage), the movie takes great pains (literally) to push the boundaries on the funny side of hyperviolent action. Chopra Jonas’s character appears to be a happy mother and fishwife, but is actually harboring a ‘Jason Bourne in pirate times’ level of competency when it comes to killing. When Urban’s ship tracks her and his stolen treasure down, it’s an all-out war across beaches, jungles, caverns, and the titular bluff itself.

Karl Urban never disappoints, but he seems so well-suited to movie piracy and swashbuckling, it’s a shame it’s taken this long to get him into one of these roles. Better late than never, though, and hopefully The Bluff can inspire a return to the type of joyous cinematic sea-bound adventure that movies used to more regularly undertake, with actors like Urban at the helm of galleons, sloops, and merchantmen.

The movie, at times, holds on to genuine dramatic moments that feel a little bit too serious for what is essentially light fare; they may even inspire a chuckle or laugh. Camp, or a grounded variation of it, is the name of the game here. The tightrope (or plank?) walk that Flowers attempts isn’t as easy as the phrase light fare would suggest. In some ways, pulling off this balance is as hard or harder than anything else. The stakes must be real, the danger felt, the action impactful, but at the same time, we have to feel the fun and be ready to laugh.

For the most part, Flowers and company pull it off. Getting a team of faceless pirate baddies to cross a crocodile-infested river and fall prey to the massive beast inspires a gunshot at his snout from Urban and an aside to the effect of “I’m sick of this jungle.” This is what good action does without feeling over-the-top or bereft of a compelling dynamic.

There is real loss depicted in The Bluff, as we learn about Chopra Jonas’ backstory. She became an unstoppable badass through tragedy, which is to be expected, but the story lingers on this note and ones like it a tad too long. Her performance is thoroughly entertaining, as Assassin’s Creed-inspired sequences of fun demonstrate her aplomb.

Her heroics are heavy, though, since she is still also caretaker of a handicapped son, a troubled sister, and the captured and ransomed love of her life. The fun is all left to Urban’s villain, which has a weird opposite effect of what seems on the surface like a female empowerment adventure. Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn were allowed to wink and smile more when they originated the swashbuckling hero on the screen. While the modern movie has less space for that purity of charisma, and every protagonist seems needlessly weighed down by ‘character development,’ we don’t have to look too far back to see Arnold, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, or Stallone simply having their own kind of fun disposing of baddies and saving the day.

The plot turns won’t surprise anyone in The Bluff, but some of the action might, and the trip into the past of swordplay, pirate traps, and hidden gold is always a welcome cinematic distraction.

For more Reviews, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.

Keep Reading:

‘Dolly’ Review – A Drive-In Throwback To 70s Horror