The Pickup

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.