What’s It About
A routine cash pickup turns into a deadly pursuit when two mismatched armored truck drivers are ambushed by ruthless criminals with plans beyond the cash.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Do you ever find yourself excited about something only to be disappointed? That’s the feeling you’ll get when watching “The Pickup.” We had it all on paper – Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer all together. But believe me, it’s boring, boring, boring. The story follows Russell, played by Murphy, who drives an armored truck and just wants to finish his last few days before retirement. He ends up stuck with Travis, Davidson’s character, whose mouth goes a mile a minute and messes everything up. Then, everything goes wrong when they are introduced to Zoe, Palmer’s character, who seems so sweet but is actually going to rob them. That’s when the plot thickens. Zoe does not want the money in the truck. She wants the truck to pull off a bigger heist at the casino. So she forces Russell and Travis to help her, threatening to hurt them if they don’t go along with her plan. What starts as a simple workday turns into a crazy road trip filled with car chases, gunfights, and lots of yelling. The biggest problem with this movie is that it can’t figure out what it wants to be. Sometimes it tries to be funny, but the jokes fall flat. At certain times, it tries to be exciting, but all the action scenes feel fake and tedious. Sometimes it tries to get you invested in the characters, but they all feel so terribly shallow that you really just don’t. Eddie Murphy completely sleepwalks his way through the entire movie. You may remember how funny Eddie Murphy used to be in movies such as “Beverly Hills Cop”; well, forget about that, because here he hardly tries at all. He looks tired and seems like he’d rather be anywhere else. It’s really sad to watch because we know how great he can be when he actually cares. Pete Davidson does his usual thing. He’s the guy who talks fast and gets into trouble. He gets a few laughs here and there, but nothing special. The character is supposed to be this lovable screw-up, but he just comes across as annoying instead of charming. Keke Palmer is the only one who brings any energy to the movie. Her character Zoe has some mystery and attitude that makes her interesting to watch. She handles the action scenes well and has good chemistry with both guys. Too bad the script doesn’t give her enough to work with. The action sequences look good on the surface. There are car chases on highways, explosions, and all the usual stuff you’d expect. But here’s the thing – they shot most of the actors in front of green screens, so nothing feels real. You can tell the stars weren’t actually in those cars during the crazy stunts. It’s like you are looking at a video game cutscene rather than a real film. Tim Story has made a reasonable number of comedy movies before, although he does not seem to try much here. He’s made comedies before, but never at the pace he uses here, and the timing differs from what you would call “comic timing.” It feels lazy. A film being one of the several films in a studio’s plan is not particularly surprising. It’s fairly easy to see how the idea of an adaptation of a property already recognized as “successful” means lazy work was put in to collect a paycheck. I would say the script was the weakest element of the entire mess. The dialogue sounds like it was written by a computer program. Characters say things that real people would never say. Zoe gets this backstory about her dad being wronged by casino owners, but it feels so fake and forced that you don’t believe any of it. What makes this movie extra frustrating is that you can see glimpses of what it could have been. When Palmer is on screen being tough and mysterious, when Davidson gets a genuinely funny line, when Murphy shows a tiny bit of his old charm – these moments remind you that these are talented people who could make a great movie together if they actually tried. Instead, we get this mess that feels like it was made just to fill up space on a streaming service. The whole thing screams “we need content, and we need it fast.” Nobody involved seems to care about making something good. They just wanted to make something that would get people to click play. The movie runs about 94 minutes, which should feel short, but it drags on and on. You keep waiting for it to get better, but it never does. By the end, you’re not angry – you’re just disappointed and a little bit sad that these actors wasted their time on this project. There are so many better heist movies you could watch instead. There are so many better comedies with Eddie Murphy. There are so many better action movies with good car chases. This movie does nothing well enough to recommend it over any of those options. The saddest part is that this represents a trend in streaming movies. Studios throw some famous names together, film everything as cheaply as possible, and hope people will watch because they recognize the actors. It’s lazy, it’s insulting to audiences, and it wastes the talents of good performers. “The Pickup” isn’t the worst movie ever made, but it might be one of the most pointless. It exists only to trick you into watching it based on the cast, then delivers nothing worth remembering. Skip this one and watch literally anything else. Your time is too valuable to waste on movies that don’t even try to be good.
OUR RATING – A CLICK BAIT 4