The Pickup review (2025)
The Pickup feels like both an uninspired Eddie Murphy comedy and a lackluster effort to give a Saturday Night Live star a featured vehicle.
More than anything, The Pickup is a waste of a premise that could have made for a decent buddy comedy.
Pete Davidson (Fast X) is Travis, a police academy washout turned armed security guard whose fortunes magically change when he meets the mesmerizing Zoe (Keke Palmer, One of Them Days).
That felt like a stretch as there’s no way Davidson could pull a woman so completely out of his league like Palmer in the real world…
Fair point. Still Davidson’s Travis is such a goofball loser it’s hard to imagine even he would think Zoe would want to have anything romantically to do with him unless she needed something.
Murphy plays Russell, a veteran guard who’s got six months left before retiring to run a bed and breakfast with his wife, Natalie (Eva Longoria). Russell is a by the books guard who doesn’t have any time to waste on shenanigans so naturally their prickly boss Gary (Andrew Dice Clay) pairs Russell with Travis on a route.
Turns out Zoe wasn’t as smitten as Travis believed as she’s the brains behind a three-person heist gunning for Travis and Russell’s armored truck. For muscle, Zoe’s brought in Banner (Jack Kesy) and Miguel (Ismael Cruz Cordero).
Director Tim Story has plenty of experience with action comedies from the two Ride Along films to the first two Fantastic Four films so it wasn’t a surprise that he’s able to pull off the blend of action and marginal laughs just fine without making The Pickup feel like a drastic case of tonal whiplash.
The first clash with Zoe’s crew and Russ and Travis is the action highlight of The Pickup. Story stages some fairly elaborate stunts with the two cars trying to take down the truck. Russ and Travis manage to ditch Banner and Miguel, but Zoe isn’t so easily deterred. She forces Russ and Travis to be her new muscle in order to pull off her heist.
Screenwriters Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider probably could have stretched out Zoe teaming with Russ and Travis. The cat and mouse angle wasn’t bad and made for a more engaging dynamic than having awkwardly forced romance drama with Davidson and Palmer, which doesn’t benefit the film.
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Another glaring misstep with The Pickup is the lack of a straight man. Murphy might not be in his 80s heyday, but he’s still got solid comic instincts and timing. Paired with a charisma lightning rod like Palmer, Murphy shows he’s in no danger of losing his comedic spark.
The trouble is with Davidson, who feels like he’s constantly trying too hard and just can’t make the lines work.
Story found some of his biggest success directing Kevin Hart in the two Ride Along and Think Like a Man films. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine how The Pickup could work better with Hart in the Travis role as his level of extra could be a fun match with Palmer, which in turn would let Murphy ease back into a straight man role.
Davidson can be funny, but the script asks him to be a star in a movie when he’s working alongside Eddie Murphy and Keke Palmer, who come off so effortlessly in their performances.
Marshawn Lynch and Roman Reigns pop in for cameos. Lynch gets to do more and shows that in the right role he could become another successful former football player turned actor. Reigns is largely just asked to play his WWE character for a quick scene.
Story loses his way at the final act, which has Banner and Miguel come after Zoe and her reluctant team. There’s a reason Zoe is after the haul and it’s a decent storyline payoff, but it takes too long for the resolution thanks to an extended chase shootout sequence.
The Pickup needed a tighter script and possibly a more suitable co-lead to pull off this caper of stealing a few laughs.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Photo Credit: Amazon
You can watch The Pickup now on Amazon Prime.
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