Tag Archives: Swashbuckler

The Bluff – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the story might not have the strength of wind behind the sails, the action and setting make up for it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service to view this film.

Rowboats approach the shore.

The Bluff Review Introduction –

Today I was thinking that I have not seen a good Pirate action-adventure film. Well, call me surprised to find that when I opened Amazon Prime tonight, I found that a new film starring Priyanka Chopra and Karl Urban had landed, promising to do just that. Well, there is no time like the present to dive in and see if it works or not.   

So, to set the scene, in crashing waves and the gale of a storm, a pirate vessel is making its way through the Caribbean Sea in the tail end of the Era of Pirates in 1846. In the gloom, it finds its prey, a merchant vessel Swiftsure with a curious captain, Theodor H. Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova), holding gold marked with their pirate brand of Captain Connor (Karl Urban). Gold, they got in the small town of Cayman Brac. But while Cayman Brac looks inconsequential, it holds many secrets, and Ercell Bodden (Priyanka Chopra) is no sailor’s wife, well, she is, but she’s also a lot more.  

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The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure (해적: 도깨비 깃발/ Haejeog: Dokkaebi Gisbal) – Movie Review

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TL;DR –  A fun romp across the ocean that does lean quite heavily into that slapstick world but nearly always lands the joke.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix subscription that viewed this movie.

The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure. Image Credit: Netflix.

The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure Review –

Ever since the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise floundered, I have been looking for another film to step up and show just how good pirate films can be. Well, it turns out to find just such a film, I needed to dive up to Korea into a world of comedy and adventure.  

So to set the scene, in 1388 Goryeo Dynasty was collapsing, and some patriotic generals plundered the Dynasty’s wealth and took it far out to sea. Sometime later, we open with a group of bandits led by Woo Moo-chi (Kang Ha-neul) floating on a wreck ready for death when they are rescued by the famous pirate Hae-rang (Han Hyo-joo). Three months after the recuse, there is still friction between the two as they capture Japanese Pirate ships. However, this particular ship they captured is searching for a treasure, a lost ship of Goryeo treasures, and now they have the map.

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Movie Review – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

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TL;DR – This is a paint by numbers film with no direction or heart, a real disappointment, and the better title is probably Pirates of The Caribbean: Coincidence on the High Seas

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a post-credit scene

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Image Credit: Disney.

Review –

So here we are looking at the fifth film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and I’m sitting here wondering where it all went wrong. The first Pirates of the Caribbean was one of those breaths of fresh air that pop up every now and again, a brilliant standalone film, reinvigorating a genre of film that had disappeared, and it had one of the greatest character entrances in film history. Its two follow-up films which completed a trilogy of sorts were not as good as the first but fine films in their own right. However, the last film felt more like a continuation out of necessity rather than a new story that they felt needed to be told, and this continues in Dead Men Tell No Tales. So at this point, it should be no surprise that I didn’t like the fifth Pirates of The Caribbean film so we’re going to break down what worked and what didn’t and one of those lists is going to be bigger than the other.

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