Plot: A routine cash pickup takes a wild turn when two mismatched armored truck drivers, Russell and Travis, are ambushed by ruthless criminals led by a savvy mastermind, Zoe, with plans that go way beyond the cash cargo. As chaos unfolds around them, the unlikely duo must navigate high-risk danger, clashing personalities, and one very bad day that keeps getting worse.
Review: Twenty years ago, a film by director Tim Story and star Eddie Murphy would have been a slam dunk that would have debuted in thousands of movie theaters during the summer blockbuster season. With comedies, especially R-rated ones, not pulling in the exact box office numbers they used to, we find projects like The Pickup on streaming platforms like Prime Video. The Pickup has some solid star power with Murphy leading the cast opposite Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer, and Eva Longoria. Still, the heist comedy is not action-packed or funny enough to warrant a visit to the cineplex. While I enjoyed moments of the movie here and there, The Pickup is a forgettable and bland action-comedy that has been done better by everyone involved, especially Eddie Murphy and Tim Story. Despite some potential in the plot, this movie is why projects like this keep failing to earn a slot on the big screen.
The Pickup opens with armored car driver Travis Stolly (Pete Davidson) holding a woman at gunpoint during a routine stop at a bank, only to find out she was asking him on a date. The woman, Zoe (Keke Palmer), spends a sexually charged weekend with Travis to learn intel on his next route so that she can set him up for a massive heist. Travis gets partnered with veteran Russell Pierce (Eddie Murphy), who is celebrating his twenty-fifth anniversary with his wife Natalie (Eva Longoria). With her criminal cohorts Banner (Jack Kesy) and Miguel (Ismael Cruz Cordova) along to take down their armored truck, Travis and Russell must figure out how to survive without losing their jobs or their lives. The film sets up the new partner dynamic between Travis and Russell quickly before heading into the first of multiple high-speed heist attempts.
In the early going, I held out expectations that this would lean into the buddy cop format, with Eddie Murphy playing the grizzled and serious senior against Pete Davidson’s young upstart Travis. There is a fun little nod to Beverly Hills Cop that I thought might lead to something more than what we got. There are also instances showcasing Travis as a math whiz who failed at the police academy, but it never gets developed into anything significant to the plot. We also have Zoe’s partners, who are barely more than stock henchmen stereotypes and don’t factor into large chunks of the story. Most of The Pickup focuses on the romantic side of Zoe and Travis’ relationship, which is aided by an easy chemistry between Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson. Eddie Murphy feels like the third wheel for much of this film, with the actor sharing his best scenes with Eva Longoria, which are sadly limited in number. When Eddie Murphy interacts with Pete Davidson, there is a missed opportunity to make Eddie the straight man for Pete’s broad comic performance.
The Pickup is bookended by two primary action sequences that feel too similar. The film was made on a limited budget, which finds most of the high-speed scenes taking place on an isolated stretch of highway that explains away the lack of other vehicles or the need for obstacles that impede the armored truck and the cars chasing it. From empty roads to warehouses, so much of the movie is set in empty expanses that I sometimes thought they were going to add CGI elements and forgot to do so. After seeing cars run off the road, flip over, and explode multiple times, I was left wanting something unique to happen in this story. The Pickup shifts to a complex heist plot that is undermined by explaining away Zoe’s criminal actions, which, rather than adding emotional heft, instead neuter the movie entirely.
Written by Mat Mider and Kevin Burrows, The Pickup comes from director Tim Story. Story has directed some big action movies like Fantastic Four and its 2007 sequel, and has balanced comedy with chases in Ride Along and Taxi, but The Pickup fails to capitalize on the scope of those films in any way. Story does a decent job of letting Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson hit their jokes and gives us some good moments of Andrew Dice Clay as their crotchety boss, but when it comes to the big stunt moments in the film, The Pickup feels bland and forgettable. For an R-rated film, we mostly get f-bombs dropped to make the movie seem more adult than it actually is, without anything really separating this from countless PG-13 movies with similar plots. There are some good music choices on the soundtrack, but nothing really sets this movie apart in the genre. Even a cameo from WWE wrestler Roman Reigns feels wasted.
Eddie Murphy seems to have settled into a routine of participating in mediocre or bad projects. For every good project he engages in (Dolemite is My Name, Coming 2 America, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F), he has a bad one (You People, Candy Cane Lane, Mr. Church). Eddie Murphy is best when he is allowed to be himself, and The Pickup is built to capitalize on his name on the poster rather than what he does on screen. Pete Davidson is exploring more distinct roles, but this feels like the type of character he had back in his SNL days. I had high hopes that The Pickup would be a fun action-comedy, but it is just another mediocre project full of wasted potential.
The Pickup premieres on August 6th on Prime Video.
Source:
JoBlo.com
