Frank E. Flowers
22 connections found
Filmography
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For all their faults, at least films like At World's End and Cutthroat Island are recognizable for their own thing.
Geena Davis’ Morgan Adams in Cutthroat Island (1995)…
A Cutthroat Island, if there is such a thing, for a new generation: the Hudson Hawk of swashbuckling action-adventure that almost survives on the gorgeous, talented leads.
…you start to wonder if this is the pirate movie that should have been called Cutthroat Island instead of the actual film with that designated title.
Filmmakers don’t want to make another Cutthroat Island, they want to make another Pirates of the Caribbean.
Only this time it’s an action thriller with all the bloody violence of a John Wick movie.
Blending the intense, brutal action of movies like John Wick and Extraction…
Priyanka Chopra Jonas continues her action hero audition with this bloody 19th-century Venn diagram of Die Hard, John Wick and various video games.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is the pirate version of John Wick in Frank E. Flowers' The Bluff, Amazon's latest straight-to-streaming action flick.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas continues her action hero audition with this bloody 19th-century Venn diagram of Die Hard…
Parts of this sequence are reminiscent of Predator, with the pursued becoming the pursuant, and like Die Hard in Ercell's dogged determination to fight with Rube Goldberg machines and McGuyver-like improvised contraptions.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
influenced The Bluff (2026)
Characters
It’s almost like she’s scolding him for idolising someone like Johnny Depp’s tipsy Captain Jack Sparrow.
We’re on the Caribbean island of Cayman Brac, but there’s no Jack Sparrow in sight.
…an almost Saving Private Ryan-esque beach invasion sequence…
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Directed by Peter Weir
influenced The Bluff (2026)
Visuals
Don’t expect elaborate ship duels in the tradition of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World or Pirates of the Caribbean. In The Bluff (named for the island’s steep cliff), the confrontations play out in compact homes, scrubland, caves and along the bluff.
Blending the intense, brutal action of movies like John Wick and Extraction…
The biggest and most famous pirate films — the aforementioend Johnny Depp films, Hook, Treasure Island — all whitewash or nullify the power of race at sea. They also sanitize the violence about about murders and rapists to make them more appropriate for children.
…with past female pirates in cinema featured in the likes of Jean Peters’ Capt. Anne Providence in Anne of the Indies (1951)…
I know that I sound like I’m saying “Airplane!” wouldn’t be funny without the jokes, but the difference is the jokes in “Airplane!” are brilliant, so you wouldn’t want to lose them.
Parts of this sequence are reminiscent of Predator, with the pursued becoming the pursuant, and like Die Hard in Ercell's dogged determination to fight with Rube Goldberg machines and McGuyver-like improvised contraptions.
In the final act, Ercell gets a stats upgrade to basically make her a cross between Batman and Michael Myers.
Part of the fun of The Bluff is parsing out Ercell’s past and why she’s rigged the island with various Home Alone-style traps that can be launched at a moment’s notice.
…the Hudson Hawk of swashbuckling action-adventure that almost survives on the gorgeous, talented leads.
The biggest and most famous pirate films — the aforementioend Johnny Depp films, Hook, Treasure Island — all whitewash or nullify the power of race at sea. They also sanitize the violence about about murders and rapists to make them more appropriate for children.
Here, the actress channels great action heroines like Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight and Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde…
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
influenced The Bluff (2026)
Themes
For all their faults, at least films like At World's End and Cutthroat Island are recognizable for their own thing.
Here, the actress channels great action heroines like Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight and Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde…
As someone who has not seen a single episode of The Boys, I’m not sure how much I can say about the actor, but in this particular film, he doesn’t manage to leave a lasting impression.
Amazon’s continued investments into the careers of Karl Urban (The Boys) and Priyanka Chopra-Jonas (Citadel) is evident.
Urban, who brings some of his cheeky, gruff machismo from “The Boys” to the part…
I know Karl Urban is known for his role as Butcher on The Boys but his acting as a villain in this didn’t make me feel anything.
…notably the vicious Captain Connor (Karl Urban, The Boys)…
…you have Urban, so good with his brooding, ominous quips in The Boys, who should elevate the film.
It’s a serviceable framework for a period action movie that, rather novelly, plays out more like a home-invasion thriller than a swashbuckling adventure (what it reminded me of most, weirdly enough, was Rambo: Last Blood).