The Pickup: Il blindato dell'amore

Pete Davidson was amazing in "The King of staten island", Keke Palmer has the bite, sass and timing of the most hilarious family member you love to be around and Eddie Murphy is without a doubt legendary within the comedy world, so...why did this film feel like no one really cared to pull their part?

Don't get me wrong, it had it's moments, but with comedy it's about delivery and timing, and it seemed as if they wanted to add as much dialouge as possible? It felt forced.

And I get excited about a good action plot, but where I thought the comedic timing was incredible in movie's like "The Kingsmen", this movie left me longing for fewer lines, more non speaking action sequences. Oh! And the way I never feel quite clever enough to see through some heists in other movies, this one was badly written and played out. Almost like an SNL skit, that goes on for way to long.

One more thing: The RFID tag is wireless, and when they do have a code to scan, it will not look like a regular barcode. Plus come on, that security would have needed some kind of hacking or handling.

I know the leading cast of this movie has shown a ton of talent and passion before, and I am excited to see more, just hope it's better written before it's put into production.

Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson save this movie from a horribly middling director. I've never heard of him before, but a quick look at his credits tells me why.

Without the performances and on screen chemistry of the two lead actors, this movie would be a one out of ten instead of a five out of ten. I'm not sure how this guy keeps getting work, but he must have something on some studio execs.

I'd like to go on about the movie. The writing is okay and the action sequences are passable. But its the directing and editing and some really really terrible voice over work of the bad guys when they have their helmets on that take this movie down. But its really not worth it.

If you have a netflix subscription, its a fun watch. Good thing no one hase to pay 20 bucks or more at a theater for it though. Then it would be a definite pass.

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 cast is perfect, but the script and direction are dull. They had top-tier comedy actors with great chemistry between them, yet half of the movie is just a chase in an armored truck, and the other half is also an action chase-but without the light comedy that was present in the first half. The characters overall are not deep, even Keke Palmer in her role couldn't bring any real impact to that cheap story about her father. In short, it's a time-wasting movie that will be forgotten over time and ranks among the worst films of Pete Davidson and Murphy.

Final rating: 5/10.

The Pickup is another example of mindlessly entertaining content from a streaming service that's highly generic and designed to be forgotten about whilst being entertaining enough thanks to the over qualified stars who sustain it over the course of a thankfully concise run time. It's an action comedy that peaks within the first 30 minutes (which could've been the whole movie) but it still works in a predictable fashion.

Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson are a solid pairing who both get some good laughs with Davidson being the more hysterical one and Murphy generally playing it a little too straight. Keke Palmer's natural magnetism shines through even when she's given bland material like this. Unfortunately, Marshawn Lynch's undeniable comedic talents are criminally wasted in the very small role he's given which is a real shame.

It is a little frustrating to see director Tim Story following his best film to date with a bland streaming movie that looks just as visually flat as the rest and the film struggles to move from being comedy heavy to action heavy. However, there are also a couple of decent action sequences and the film has a bit of an energetic visual style interspersed throughout which delivers exposition in a slightly more interesting way.