The Pickup

Wow this was a really bad movie. Plot is AWFUL, for a truck heist movie there's no action and the dialogue seems improvised or written by a teenager. Now I must admit I'm not really a Keke Palmer fan so that didn't help but I saw Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson and thought it has to at least have a few funny scenes. Nope, I was wrong, This movie was a cash grab and should be avoided.

Travis (Pete Davidson) is working as a guard for an armored transport company, and while at a bank, a women, Zoe, wants to show him a note. He thinks that is a hold up note, so he pulls his gun. She only wanted to date him and he hooks up with her. Russell (Eddie Murphy) wants that days run to be easy, to get to his 25th Wedding Anniversary dinner that night. And Russell is planing to leave his job, and they will start a B&B. But his boss has other ideas, and puts him on a terrible run, and worse, pairs him with Travis. Travis comes from a family of cops, but couldn't make the cut, so he is a guard. He is rather a goofball. Just when one gets tired of his stupid decisions, he makes a good one. While on their run, they get hijacked, and they figure they are going to be robbed, and then killed. Turns out the only thing Travis is good at is driving, so there are some interesting chase scenes, and those wanting the truck are very determined, and it was well planned out. A problem with this movie is that it is very uneven. Fun and interesting intermixed with dumb and stupid. Russell seems to be along for the ride. Travis seems either to act totally dense or simply out of his league. We do meet up with Zoe again, and that adds an interesting twist. A very lightweight movie that has its charms. One will not feel they wasted time watching it, nor would they want to watch it again to see if there are important things they missed.

The Pickup (2025) is an action comedy heist movie directed by Tim Story and it tells the story of a group of characters doing a heist like every other movie of this genre and it was pretty good in a very superficial way.

Positives for The Pickup (2025): The plot of this movie is basically the same as other heist movies I've watched before and it works for the most part because of the actors. Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer and Eva Longoria are pretty good. The heist is done pretty well with Tim Story's direction. The action and comedy are also done pretty well. And finally, the movie is straightforward with the execution and I like that it wasn't trying to be too smart or stupid.

Negatives for The Pickup (2025): The plot of this movie very predictable and you know what is going to happening with every plot point. You have Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson teaming up with Keke Palmer and they are doing the typical "We don't like each other, but we will work together for the mission and we surely won't be connecting with one another and be good buddies after our mission." and it plays out exactly how you imagine it being. The villains are very one-note and I don't even remember their names. And finally, this plot has been done before and done better in other movies.

Overall, The Pickup (2025) is your typical streaming movie that you can watch at home and get some superficial entertainment from watching it and that's about it.

Granted, when I stumbled upon this movie and opted to watch it, I didn't harbor the biggest of expectations, as Eddie Murphy haven't exactly been in top notch movies in recent years. But still, since it was a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to check it out.

Writers Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider put together an enjoyable script and storyline. Sure, it was running on many generic tropes for a heist movie, but it still proved rather enjoyable.

The scene with the music in the van was a nice homage to some of Eddie Murphy's earlier classic movies.

The movie does have some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Eddie Murphy, Eva Longoria, Pete Davidson, Ismael Cruz Cordova and Andrew Dice Clay. The acting performances in "The Pickup" were good.

There is a good amount of action throughout the course of the movie, which definitely helps to spruce up the narrative. It was nicely executed action sequences as well.

I was actually genuinely entertained throughout the course of the movie. It was like a trip back to the action comedies of the 1990s. This is a popcorn movie, so just lean back in the seat, munch on the snacks and enjoy the ride.

My rating of director Tim Story's 2025 movie "The Pickup" lands on a six out of ten stars.

There is nothing ground breaking here and that's fine. Not every movie is going to be an academy award winning movie.

What this is, is a very light hearted action movie that is heavy on comedy with a few brief moments of thrill and twists and turns but again nothing that hasn't been done before.

As long as you don't take it too seriously there is plenty enough to keep you entertained for 90 minutes.