A routine cash pickup turns into a deadly pursuit when ruthless criminals ambush two mismatched armored truck drivers with plans beyond the cash.
“The Pickup,” Amazon’s new heist comedy from Tim Story, casts Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson as two unorthodox security drivers as the title overpromises and under-delivers. The film is about Russell (Murphy), a veteran armored car driver with a deadline to get home for his anniversary, and Travis (Davidson), a reckless young driver whose connection to a mysterious woman named Zoe (Keke Palmer) gets them on a wild course of crime, chaos, and a multi-million-dollar heist at a casino. It starts as an offbeat workday that turns into an all-out caper with bullets and changing allegiances. The idea is sound, and the tone attempts light humor, but “The Pickup” winds up drifting on surface charm.
Murphy is outstanding in his leading role, holding down the film with the comfortable assurance of a veteran comedy star. Even when the script doesn’t give him a lot to do, his screen presence elevates the material. Eva Longoria, playing as Russell’s wife Natalie, infuses her few scenes with warmth and comedic intelligence and glows even in the supporting role. Pete Davidson’s, by contrast, is less a fully realized character and more a series of extended sketches. His humor, nervously awkward and offhanded, sizzles with flashes of success but collides with the more polished and refined performance of Murphy.
The film does have some value. A pair of action sequences, specifically an early truck chase, is nicely handled and visually crisp. Murphy and Davidson share a rapport that makes the occasional laugh, and Keke Palmer is great as the cunning Zoe, adding much-needed unpredictability and zip to the proceedings. They are not enough to completely forgive, though, a bare script in depth, its characters more archetypes than flesh-and-blood people, even for a comedy movie. The pacing is uneven, with a sagging middle half dragged down by too much exposition, and while the jokes come fast and furious, few leave an indelible mark.
“The Pickup” is the type of film that’s enjoyable while watching it, but that fades from the mind shortly after the credits have rolled. It’s pleasant enough to bide the weekend beside the brook and may be adequate for fans of light heist comedies, but it never quite climbs to the heights of comedy and feeling it’s striving for. Despite the talent available, namely Murphy and Longoria, the film is playing it safe, delivering the safe beats instead of forging bold shortcuts. In the end, “The Pickup” is exactly what it seems: something you are picked up from, not something you’ll be discussing later.
Available to stream exclusively on Prime Video Wednesday, August 6th
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