- 5 months ago
Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson ride together in an armoured car in this heist comedy, where it seems like someone has looted the laughs.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson are
00:05driving like they stole it in the heist comedy, The Pickup.
00:25On the day of his 25th anniversary to his wife Natalie, played by Eva Longoria,
00:29Russell, played by Eddie Murphy, finds himself being assigned rookie partner Travis, played by Pete Davidson,
00:35on a long route with Signal Deadzones.
00:38There, they find their truck is attacked by a gang of thieves, led by Kiki Palmer's Zoe,
00:43who Travis had a hookup with the night before.
00:45When Russell and Travis take out her partners, Zoe improvises and forces them to help her in a $60 million casino heist.
00:54We've talked before about the Eddie Murphy career rollercoaster,
00:57and it's been a recurring feature on this channel for the last 15 years.
01:01Murphy is undoubtedly one of the greatest comedy talents of our time,
01:04but everyone knows the quality of his projects is wildly variable.
01:08His highs are legit classics like Coming to America,
01:11but his lows are infamous does like Pluto Nash or A Thousand Words.
01:16And right now, Murphy's on a bit of a high.
01:19After a long fallow decade where he was largely off our screens,
01:23Murphy has had a bit of a comeback, largely on streamers like Netflix and Prime Video.
01:28Dolomites by Name was Murphy's best film in decades,
01:31and he even finally got the fourth Beverly Hills Cop made,
01:35which was stuck in development hell for so long that some people,
01:38by which I mean me, doubted it would ever get made.
01:42And you know what?
01:43Axel F was pretty good,
01:45and it showed that Murphy could still carry an R-rated action comedy, even in his 60s.
01:50The pickup continues in that vein, and this is Murphy continuing to return to his roots.
01:55His first films, 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop,
01:58practically invented the action comedy,
02:01where Murphy was pure comic anarchy, and the action was outrageous,
02:05but it had a hard edge to it at times.
02:08It's a particularly popular subgenre on streamers, as it's an easy programmer.
02:12Just put a couple of A-laces in it, rack up the explosions,
02:15and you've got some easy viewing for a night in.
02:17They're usually spy comedies or heist movies.
02:21The pickup feels like it's Amazon's easy alternative to not having Axel F over at Netflix,
02:26but it could just as easily be a fill-in for not having Matt Damon in Apple TV Plus' The Instigators.
02:32The pickup even makes clear very early on what it aspires to be,
02:35with a gag where the Pointer Sisters' Neutron Dance, famously used in Beverly Hills Cop,
02:40starts playing on Travis's speaker to Russell's dislike.
02:43I actually cringed a bit when that happened, because that's a big comparison to call attention to,
02:48not least of which because the pickup ain't exactly up to the level of Beverly Hills Cop.
02:53No, this is much more the level of, say, Metro.
02:57Although, I suppose it could be worse.
02:59That's still better than Beverly Hills Cop 3.
03:02And yeah, coming into this expecting Axel F was a bit of a mistake on my part,
03:06because consistency has never been Murphy's strong suit.
03:11And that almost certainly includes Murphy's own performances.
03:14When Murphy's on form, he's utterly electric, and he can transform a scene with his presence.
03:19But when he's clearly not engaged with the material, he can scarcely hide his own boredom.
03:24The weird bit about the pickup, which he also produced, by the way,
03:28is that you somehow get both of these Murphys in the same movie, depending on the scene.
03:33I think part of this is the role. When he did the aforementioned comedies in the 80s,
03:37he was the young upstart. He was the street smart one who was coming in and causing trouble.
03:43But obviously, now, the roles have been reversed.
03:46He's kind of the Nick Nolte type at this point. The world-weary older partner.
03:51It's not a new change. Again, the dynamic with Davidson is like the one in Metro with Michael Rappaport.
03:57But it's a much straighter role for Murphy, and I don't think it's one that he thrives in.
04:03So he spends a lot of the pickup in fairly subdued form. His character just wants to punch through his
04:08shift, follow procedure, and get back to his wife to celebrate their anniversary, whilst also eyeing
04:14a nice retirement and opening up a bed and breakfast somewhere. He's cranky, but it's not really funny
04:20cranky like we know Murphy can do. It's hard to tell if his weariness is him trying to play the
04:26character, or if he's bored at not really being given all that much to do. But then, every so often,
04:32Murphy will have a moment where he seems to come to life and score a laugh, and cuts loose
04:37from playing it straight. There's a couple of moments where he's obviously allowed to
04:41improv a bit, or he's mugging about how everything aches after doing the action. Or there's a
04:46bit in the diner where he starts singing the theme tune to Shaft. They're precious fleeting
04:51moments that show just how much funnier Murphy is than he's being allowed to be.
04:55We don't come to see Eddie being the straight man, we come to see Eddie be funny.
05:01Hell, I even thought of a slight rewrite which would have made things way more interesting.
05:05What if the fact that he wanted to celebrate his anniversary and retire, and then he suddenly
05:09gets robbed, he just snaps? He's had up to here with this shit, and it'll go crazy just
05:15to get home. I'm basically describing Dabney Coleman in short time, but that's way more
05:21interesting and gives Murphy something to work with. It doesn't really help that Murphy doesn't
05:26really gel with Pete Davidson. You'd think they would, given they're both SNL alums from
05:31different eras, but the chemistry isn't really there, and that is absolutely pivotal to a
05:36buddy movie like this. Davidson is playing the role like we've come to expect from him,
05:41the goofy screw-up, but he's playing it to the hilt here, trying to carry the brunt of the
05:46film's comedy, which is really gonna depend on your tolerance for him. The film gets off to a
05:51rough start with its very first scene, where Davidson's Travis first encounters Palmer's Zoe
05:57at a bank while he's on the job, and she tries to hand him a note with her number, and he suddenly
06:02panics and pulls a gun on her, screaming for everyone to get down on the ground! And Davidson
06:07is really mugging and playing it over the top, trying to get it to work, but it's terribly forced
06:13and stupid. It just isn't funny. And that's not even getting into the optics of that moment,
06:19which clearly no one really thought about, so let's just put that aside. Yeah, that's a total
06:24misstep right out of the gate. Not amusing, makes no sense, and sours you on both his character and
06:31the film immediately. Oh, and given that she's his love interest, their meet-cute is him pulling a gun
06:37on her. Wow! It's so stupid that the movie even has to call attention to how idiotic it is several
06:45times, because obviously the plot requires Zoe to seduce Travis in order to extract information from
06:50him for the heist, and he's such a lovestruck puppy that he becomes a total blabbermouth. And needless to
06:57say, he doesn't even think about the fact that she's still speaking to him, let alone the fact that she's
07:01taking him out on a date and sleeping with him after he, and I hate to keep repeating this,
07:06pulled a gun on her, is in any way strange or suspicious. I feel like where you're at the point
07:12where the characters are having conversations, pointing out the holes and contrivances in the
07:16plot to try and get a laugh out of it, you probably need to do a total rewrite. Anyway, Travis is a bit
07:24of a loser who has this job because he flunked the police academy out of a family of cops, but he's the
07:29kind of idiot that you get in comedies like this. He's really dumb, except for the modes where the
07:34plot requires him to not be, so he does have skills in defensive driving and in maths. His ability to
07:40instantly calculate sums in his head is a running gag, and they even have a sound effect for it, but
07:46it never actually has a payoff. If you're going to borrow that bit from The Hangover, at least you
07:51could have remembered that Alan finally used it to count cards. The pickup doesn't even give us that.
07:57I'm being a little harsh because Davidson does have his moments where he made me chuckle, but then there
08:02will be other bits where he just farts in the cab to try and score a cheap laugh. And again, I don't think
08:08this is the kind of role that plays to his strengths as a performer. When Davidson marries his humour with a bit of a
08:14dramatic edge, like in Big Time Adolescence or The King of Staten Island, he's much better. But I don't really blame
08:20Murphy or Davidson so much as the fact that the script doesn't really offer them many opportunities to shine. The film's writers,
08:26Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider, previously of Netflix's The Package, have given this a very basic and generic
08:32setup that it feels like anyone could have been plugged into. And there's a lot of comedians and funny people in the cast who are similarly
08:39underutilised. Mishawn Lynch, who was hilarious in Bottoms, only gets a couple of scenes as a Chop Shop owner named, um, Chop Shop. And Andrew Dice Clay
08:50plays Russell and Travis's gruff boss, who spends the entirety of the film getting cussed out and
08:56called an asshole. Which is honestly the kind of Andrew Dice Clay performance I can really get behind.
09:02Eva Longoria is sour with the largely thankless role of The Wife, who gets one moment to the end and a
09:08feisty personality to try and make up for the fact that nearly her entire role in the film is to be threatened, kidnapped,
09:14and knocked out. Which it doesn't, obviously. And watching some of the behind the scenes footage, it looks like
09:20everyone's having fun, but that hasn't really translated into the final product. Clearly they were hoping they would
09:26punch up the script in the same way that Murphy famously improvised his way through Beverly Hills Cop, but there's only so
09:32much you can do when a good chunk of it is the actors sitting in a cab together. Even the heist movie aspect isn't even
09:38exciting or dramatic. When Zoe convinces them to rob a casino, you'd expect all kinds of complications
09:44and mishaps to add to the comedy intention. But instead, it's a remarkably straightforward stroll into the
09:50vault. I was expecting things to kick up a notch at this point, that it's happening in the run up to this big
09:55MMA bout, but then it just doesn't. The only real complication is they run into one of the fighters, played by
10:02Roman Reigns for a single scene, who for some reason is having a photo shoot in the casino's actual vault.
10:08I have no idea why that would be happening. And then they just... talk him away? Like, the heist is
10:14meant to be where something like this shines, but it's so underwhelming, like their budget got cut.
10:20Did they just run out of money and rewrite the whole last third of the movie? But again, you can't
10:25mine comedy out of it if everything goes swimmingly. And so Murphy is just largely standing around for this
10:32stretch of the film. But if someone is stealing this movie, it is undeniably Kiki Palmer. Palmer's been on
10:38my radar ever since her fantastic performance in Nope, and she's bringing so much charisma to her
10:43part every time she's on screen. She makes it very understandable why Travis is defenseless to her
10:48charms and constantly swooning and excusing her. And the stuff between Palmer and Davidson is pretty
10:54amusing. Palmer is giving her a gain to this, and it's rare to say that someone has managed to steal a
10:59movie from under Eddie Murphy, but she's managed it. She even manages to sell it when the writing again
11:05doesn't make sense. She spends a lot of the first half being quite ruthless and calculating,
11:10like the way she manipulates Travis or leaving her sidekicks in the dust. But then the movie has to
11:16try and make her sympathetic. So then they bring out the tragic backstory and hope the audience don't
11:21have a very long attention span. Speaking of those sidekicks, she mentions they're useless because
11:26they're clearly not okay after being kicked out of a truck at 90 miles per hour, which makes sense.
11:31Except in this movie, because they're somehow fine and are just cheesed off at getting left behind.
11:37So Jack Keesey's Banner and Ismael Cruz Cordova's Miguel are on a trail for revenge,
11:42because this movie needs antagonists, even ones which should be in the hospital with several broken
11:47bones. Luckily, the action side in the pickup is pretty good. This is directed by veteran journeyman
11:53director Tim Story, who has directed everything from Tom and Jerry to Fantastic Four. But he's got a lot
11:58of experience in action comedies like the ride along movies and the taxi remake. So maybe it shouldn't
12:04be a surprise that there's more car stunts than you might expect for a heist caper. Sometimes story
12:09frames them a bit flatly. The pickup has that slightly TV look of streaming movies, but there's some
12:16impressive slow motion car crashes. Probably the best sequence in the film is a lengthy action beat
12:22where Russell throws die bags to fend off their pursuers, which go off in spectacular fashion.
12:27But a lot of this is second unit with the stunt team, with Murphy and Davidson largely in cutaway
12:32shots. Even Palmer is probably dubbing in her lines, given that her character is masked through
12:37these scenes. So it's weirdly a comedy that works best when the comics are off screen somehow.
12:43I'm probably making the pickup sound terrible, but it's not. It's just uninspired. It's far from the
12:49worst movie that Murphy's ever made, and not even close on that count. But squandering a film with a cast
12:55this funny is practically a criminal offence in of itself. It's the kind of movie that has a running
13:00gag with a stuffed squirrel monkey that isn't funny when it's first introduced, let alone when they keep
13:06coming back to it repeatedly. It has a few amusing moments and some great car stunts, and that will
13:12probably be enough to pass 90 minutes. But it has that disposable feel of so many streaming movies that
13:18you'll have probably forgotten about it in a week. It hits the marks, but it never does anything special
13:24or well enough to stand out. If you want classic Murphy, then revisit 48 Hours or Beverly Hills Cop.
13:31Hell, even give Axel F a rewatch. Aside from Palmer, the pickup largely just steals your time
13:38without giving much back in return. And in that way, it's 2025's answer to Showtime.
13:45If you like this review and you want to support my work, you can give me a tip at my Ko-fi page,
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14:03simply like, share and subscribe. It's really appreciated. Until next time, I'm Matthew Buck, fading out.
14:15I'll see you next time.
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