Pick-up

Wow! I'm just a sucker for stuff like this. A real trippy trip and a real surprise. I was expecting crap camera-work, crap acting and silly story comprising a decent little, grind house piece of sleaze. But no, someone had genuine aspirations here and if it doesn't completely come off, it is certainly a super, one off of a movie that manages to encapsulate a brief moment in western youth culture. But leaving aside any seriousness this is such a great movie to watch with such super widescreen cinematography. Two girls and a guy and a converted bus are cavorting their way to deliver the said auto when they end up lost in the Everglades and just decide to enjoy themselves. Bright, cheery, sexy, yes maybe a little pretentious but it has such a glow about it that it would be churlish to complain. Just when I was beginning to wonder if this was going anywhere at all there is a most impressive burst of violence and it's over. You won't have seen a film quite like this before.

Don't let the abundance of positive votes for glowing reviews fool you. Packaged with other exploitation movies like Superchick and Malibu High, Pick-Up is nothing but pretentious wanderings filled with metaphysical mumbo-jumbo dialogue by Bernard Hirschenson who, no surprise, never directed again. Free spirited Carol and deep thinking Maureen hitch a ride with Chuck who must deliver a large RV from Miami to Tallahassee but somehow gets stuck in the Everglades where they prance around naked or partake in suedo-sacrificial ceremonies with Greek deities. Yeah, pure grindhouse experience there. At least the two young beauties bare their bodies consistently which is the only saving grace of this film. At some points in the movie a backstory is provided for the three travelers, albeit disjointedly, providing little insight into why they are at this particular station in life. I'm perfectly fine with the notion that Pick-Up has bigger meaning than I might give it credit, however this is not a movie that belongs in an exploitation collection. The cumulative score of 5.0 as I write this is more indicative of the fact that this is seen by most as an average at best film. This certainly is not an awful film, just not as good as some might make this out to be. Decide for yourself.

This film is not loaded with special effects or a huge written script. However if you love movies as much as I do you will like this movie. It is a simple adventure of 3 people named Carol, Chuck, and Maureen. Do to a tropical storm and a few detours the trio gets stuck in the middle of some swamplands. Once there we begin to learn a great deal about these people through their actions in the present and flashbacks to younger days. The feel of the movie is definitely 70's and mixes with a slight acid trip of not taking drugs but feeling like you are in a daze. While not much is really going on it will definitely make you think!!!

This is essentially a movie with no story. What starts out as a road trip movie turns into some bad dada-esque, head trip.

Carol and Maureen, two sexy and carefree girls, are hanging out in Florida out in a field near the highway. Along comes Chuck, a good-looking California surfer stud whose driving a RV (they were called mobile homes back then). He offers them a ride and they can't resist. Carol takes to Chuck immediately and flirts with him while they travel. Meanwhile, in the back of the trailer, the dark and mysterious Maureen is deep into her tarot cards and astrology. She's foreseeing danger ahead.

Instead of any real kind of story, what we get is Chuck and Carol running naked through a field and having lots of sex while Maureen looks on envious of the couple. But then eventually she gets her turn with the stud too. Interspersed in all this sex is lots of trippy, psychedelic imagery, groovy music, nude women, sinister clowns and other confusion. It's perfect for a drive-in where hardly anyone is paying attention anyway cuz most of the audience was making out or socializing or a lot of stoners will get a trip watching. Otherwise, this is a complete waste of time unless you want to catch some T&A.

Strangely this movie got released again recently as part of a "Grindhouse Double Feature" DVD. Aside from the abundant nudity and softcore groping, it is not really what I expected. Rather than being sleazy and gritty like most old grindhouse movies, it's kind of arty, a little pretentious, and mostly just plain weird. It doesn't really fit in with stuff like "Hitchhike to Hell" or "The Hitchhikers" or the more exploitative youth-oriented films of the era.

A guy driving a tricked-out camper van and making some kind of mysterious delivery picks up two hippie chicks. One of them is a nymphomaniac, so of course they immediately have sex. The other is revealed to be suffering from religious delusions as the result of having been molested by a priest (a straight priest?--now I've heard everything!). After the threesome break down in the Florida Everglades the secrets of the girls begin to be revealed a little with flashbacks (between the sex scenes), but the movie also gets exponentially weirder.

As others have said the two girls are VERY pretty and not like the sleazy skanks that were often in these kind of movies. The cinematography is also very impressive and professional, and for a "grindhouse" movie they sure used a good looking, wide-screen print. The low-budget IS evidenced by a lack of sync sound in a lot of places (which might be the reason for the kind of nebulous plot and character development). With its emphasis on the visuals at the expense of plot and acting, this almost seems like a foreign movie of that era--like maybe Jean Rollin was slumming in the Florida Everglades. All in all, I guess I'd recommend it, especially if you're looking for a weird, arty hippie movie, but it seems pretty mis-marketed as a "grindhouse" flick.