The Pickup (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

The Pickup

THE PICKUP (2025)

Starring Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Eva Longoria, Keke Palmer, Jack Kesy, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Andrew Dice Clay, Jef Holbrook, Marshawn Lynch, Roman Reigns, Lara Grice, Nelson Bonilla, Joe Anoa'I, Ray Murphy Jr., Keith Adams, Charles Green, Regina Ting Chen, Bethany Rachel Tull, Christopher Davis, Laurence Chavez, Leydi Morales and Quantrell Colbert.

Screenplay by Matt Mider & Kevin Burrows.

Directed by Tim Story.

Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios. 94 minutes. Rated R.

Phoning it in: (idiom) To perform a task or activity with minimal effort or enthusiasm, often resulting in a lackluster or perfunctory outcome. (see also: Eddie Murphy)

We have always been fascinated by the curious case of Eddie Murphy, which we have discussed many times over the years in these reviews. Murphy stormed out of his Saturday Night Live stardom with four almost perfect films, 48 Hrs., Trading Places, the standup concert film Delirious and Beverly Hills Cop. In the 40 years since that, Murphy has made tons of movies, most of which stink, and on many of which he personally seems completely checked out.  

Oh, sure, every 5-10 years he will luck onto a pretty decent film – Coming To America, Boomerang, Shrek, Bowfinger, DreamGirls, Mulan, Dolemite is My Name, and even, if I’m feeling a little generous, last year’s Beverly Hills Cop reboot Axel F. However, for each of those he has done many awful movies, like The Golden Child, Best Defense, Harlem Nights, Beverly Hills Cop III, Vampire in Brooklyn, Metro, Doctor Doolittle, Holy Man, Life, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I Spy, Daddy Day Care, Norbit, Meet Dave, Imagine That, A Thousand Words, Mr. Church, Coming 2 America and Candy Cane Lane. And for those of you who wonder why I did not include The Nutty Professor in the list of his occasional good films, I have to say that I absolutely hated that movie.

The Pickup pulls quickly right into the bad film listing.

It teams up Murphy with another, much later, similarly disappointing former Saturday Night Live star, Pete Davidson. However, it’s not like you expect anything other than a listless, phoned-in performance from Davidson, who has never made a good movie. Even in his big showcase vehicle The King of Staten Island, Davidson was the weak part in an actually fairly well-made movie with a talented cast surrounding him. And now, he’s Murphy’s goofball sidekick in this film.

Also wasted in this film is Eva Longoria in a role that is an ethnic stereotype of a hot-headed Latina. In fact, the only cast member who makes it out of this film looking good is Keke Palmer as the complicated villain – not that her character is any more realistic than any of the others, but at least she feels engaged with the material and adds a bit of her own sass and charm to her cliched lines.

The Pickup is an action comedy which can’t be bothered to be either funny or exciting. It’s a bad movie, but not even a bad movie in an interesting way, one that can be watched ironically for enjoyment. It’s simply product – and not good product at that. It is half-hearted and undercooked. And the two leads have terrible chemistry together.

So, what’s it all about anyway? Murphy and Davidson play Russell and Travis, two armored car drivers. Russell is the smart old vet who is thinking about retirement and just wants to get home for his 25th anniversary celebration with his wife (Longoria). Travis is the young fuck-up who really wants to be a cop but keeps failing the entrance exams.

They have never worked a route together, but their boss (played by Andrew Dice Clay, of all people) decides to have them go on a big all-day run, hitting many towns in central New Jersey before ending up in Atlantic City. The complication is that they will be hitting a stretch of turnpike which has absolutely no cell phone coverage.

A ninety-minute cell phone dead zone on the Atlantic City Turnpike? Are they crazy? Have the filmmakers ever even been to New Jersey? It’s hard to say, because honestly except for some stock footage of one Atlantic City casino, none of the film settings look the least bit like they were actually filmed in New Jersey. Also, on a side note, I’ve been on the turnpike they are supposed to be on many times, and it is NEVER, EVER close to that empty.

The conflict – big surprise – is that some thieves decide to attack the armored car during that dead zone, and they have to make it through for over an hour with no contact with the outside world. (I reiterate, there are absolutely no 90-minute dead zones anywhere in New Jersey.)

None of it is the least bit of a surprise. The comic relief tends to fall stunningly flat. And even the stunts, which are at least done competently, tend to be underwhelming.

It seems that Eddie Murphy isn’t the only one phoning it in on this film. Let’s not reward such lazy filmmaking by watching it.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: August 6, 2025.