Atanaria
Remember 48 Hrs.? Eddie Murphy’s breakout role, the one that invented a whole genre of buddy action comedy? Yeah, The Pickup is basically that… if you sucked all the comedy out, replaced Nick Nolte with Pete Davidson, and then forgot to write most of the script.
The plot — and I’m using that term generously — is this: Russell (Murphy), an armored truck driver counting down to his 25th anniversary dinner, gets stuck with Travis (Davidson), a rookie so incompetent he probably fails his own breath test. Minutes later, they’re hijacked by Travis’s recent hookup Zoe (Keke Palmer), who, in a bold twist, turns out to have been using him the whole time. She needs the truck for a $60 million casino heist, because apparently Ocean’s Eleven was too subtle.
What follows is 94 minutes of car chases, gun waving, and the kind of “cool” snap-zooms and camera moves that scream, We saw this in a better movie once. Director Tim Story (Ride Along, Barbershop) is clearly in love with the action — so much so that he forgets he’s got two comedy stars in the leads. Instead of the laugh-a-minute buddy banter you came for, you get Murphy looking like he’s mentally grocery shopping and Davidson delivering lines as if he just woke up and someone pointed a camera at him.
The supporting cast is a who’s-who of wasted talent: Keke Palmer forced to play “Mysterious Heist Girl Who Doesn’t Smile,” Eva Longoria trapped in the thankless “Worried Wife Who Grabs a Gun” role, and Andrew Dice Clay showing up just long enough to make you wish he was in the lead. Even cameos from Marshawn Lynch and Roman Reigns can’t distract from the fact that this script was clearly printed on the back of a napkin.
Murphy’s been great in his recent streaming run (Dolemite Is My Name, You People, Coming 2 America), but here he’s playing it so low-key you start to wonder if he’s being paid by the word. Davidson gets most of the “jokes,” and while some land by accident, most feel like someone improvised until the director yelled “Fine, cut.”
The tragedy is, there’s a version of The Pickup that could have worked — one that leaned into the absurdity, embraced the chaos, and actually let Murphy and Davidson bounce off each other instead of playing characters from entirely different genres. Instead, we get an “action comedy” that’s 90% action, 5% comedy, and 5% unintentional hilarity when the movie tries to be “cool.”
“The Pickup” is like finding a stale candy bar in the glove compartment — technically edible, vaguely familiar, but you’ll regret it halfway through. Two stars. One for Davidson’s occasional accidental laugh, one for Murphy’s sheer name recognition. Zero for effort.
