A waste of time and money for these big talents.
Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson play two New Jersey armored truck drivers who are both assigned for a routine cash pickup. Murphy is the experienced Russell Pierce, who is preparing for his 25th wedding anniversary with Natalie (Eva Longoria), while Davidson is the rookie Travis Stolley, who has a one night stand with the sexy Zoe (Keke Palmer). But what the young man learns too late is that the young lady is a criminal mastermind.
That’s the set-up for the new Amazon Prime Video action comedy “The Pickup,” which wastes these three talents and relies on bantering, time consuming car chases, boring money games, and stupid choices for mass entertainment. I love Murphy, Davidson, and Palmer, but I hated their first movie all together.
After a time consuming car chase where paint bombs, explosions, and flat tires emerge, Zoe holds the two men hostage for a big score. A score that regards revenge.
Things get stupider when Natalie tracks down her husband like the crazy wife she is, and finds out that Zoe is holding her husband and new partner at gun point. At the very least, the disbelieving wife idea doesn’t last long because of that gun. And things get more typical when Zoe’s two goons (Jack Kesy and Ismael Cruz Cordova) are left for dead and want revenge on her.
Amazingly enough like Snake falling for the conniving raven Doom in “The Bad Guys 2,” Travis is still in love with Zoe. So what are the odds of these two entering “Raising Arizona” territory? Pretty good.
Murphy and Davidson are both SNL legends from different generations, and they have done better and can do better. But their first collaboration is a complete missed opportunity, as if the movie was more interested in Murphy’s deadpan disposition and Davidson’s manic energy than the honesty that has helped made their respective comedies original.
And Palmer started the year off brilliantly with the comedy “One of Them Days,” in which she and SZA play roommates trying to pay their rent. That was a funny and smart movie, while “The Pickup” is an unfunny and dumb movie.
Director Tim Story is a comedy filmmaker who has his shares of good and bad movies (and I think more people should have seen “The Blackening”), but his latest movie is pretty bad. What wouldn’t be a comedy without a mean boss played by a comedy star? Here in the form of Andrew Dice Clay, who has delivered the right kind of attitude in “Blue Jasmine.” And what wouldn’t be an R-rated action comedy when someone gets killed and awkward faces are made? This movie watches too many action comedies of its kind.
I also think these long car chases are excuses for the film to be about 90 minutes long. The most perfunctory chase sequence takes place towards the end when it involves bad CGI effects, guns, and screaming faces.
There’s a line in “The Pickup” when Russell asks Travis how old does he think he is, and the young man responds: “You look 40,” but you could be up to 90.” Even in his early 60s, Murphy still looks good, and it’s funny because when I was a kid, I was surprised that Danny DeVito and Steve Martin were in their 60s. I thought they were in their 40s at the time. Maybe it’s the make-up talking, I don’t know. Or maybe their comedic styles are ageless. Now, this assumption is more interesting and surprising than anything going on in this cash grab. You’d be better off with paint bombs in your cash.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
