The Pickup Review: Eddie Murphy-Pete Davidson's bromance leads this chaotic, lacklustre heist comedy

Nail-biting car-chasing scenes always hit the best! With realistic and intense sequences, it gives an adrenaline rush and thrill to watch. A similar situation catches up with Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson in their latest release titled The Pickup. The heist comedy, led by the duo, gets caught up in the money heist situation when they are on the job. Featuring Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson, does it do justice to its genre? How's their chemistry? Did the cast do justice to their acting in this film? Let's dig in.

Plot of The Pickup

In the film, Travis (Pete Davidson), a young truck driver who is chaotic and funny, and Russell (Eddie Murphy), a serious, no-nonsense armoured truck driver, on the verge of his retirement, are paired together for the assignment of transporting money across New Jersey.

Throughout the journey, the two don't get along much, but slowly gel. While Russell is trying to get his work done early so that he can go to his wife, Natalie (Eva Longoria), to celebrate their marriage anniversary. But one blunder from Travis cost them their time and almost their life.

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That's where the beginning of the heist begins, when they get ambushed by a gang of criminals that includes Zoe (Keke Palmer), with whom Travis had gone on a date. But will they be able to stop the heist or fall into a more dangerous trap? Is Zoe siding with the criminals or secretly helping Travis and Russell? With every suspense builds up and to figure out who, after all, is the criminal mastermind, which initially Zoe was expected to be.

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Flaws of The Pickup

Seeing this as a comedy heist, The Pickup, should have 'picked up' more pace in the storyline, rather than showing car chasing scenes throughout the film. Despite having a star-studded cast, the film's direction falls flat and becomes very predictable towards the end.

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In the film, the cast tried to bring one-liner jokes, but failed to inject any, even though it falls under the category of action-comedy. Coming to the action scenes, they felt outdated, which nowadays we see in Hollywood movies.

Performance of the cast in The Pickup

Eddie Murphy has so far delivered some of the best works in Hollywood, including Beverly Hills Cop, The Nutty Professor, and Shrek, in which he gave voice to the donkey. Being a fan of his, this version of Eddie Murphy I find is the more calm one, but as said, he could have used his acting chops to their full potential. He has done his part of the job as per the direction and the plot line of the film.

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While Pete Davidson is funny and chaotic, the charm he brings to the film as Eddie's partner makes it a great team. Behaving like a dumb guy in the film at the beginning of it was okay, but it became exhausting towards the end.

Well, Keke Palmer did her role as a complex character with an emotional backstory, and felt she was miscast here. She could have very well been a part of the team of Eddie and Pete. Coming to Eva Longoria, playing the role of the wife of Eddie's character, did a great job, despite less screen time.

Final verdict of The Pickup

The Pickup is a lackluster film with confusing scenes, and Eddie Murphy's acting skills were not shown to the full extent. Pete Davidson's character was lacking in-depth, while Keke Palmer manages to bring her charisma to an extent. Anyone who wants to watch this film needs to have a lot of patience for a 1-hour 34-minute duration.

The Pickup could have been a life story featuring Eddie Murphy. But as a fan of his, this is one of the disappointing films he has starred in recent times. The story did not do justice and felt like a spoof and a mix-and-match of several other Hollywood films.

Produced and directed by Tim Story and written by Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows, The Pickup stars Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer, Eva Longoria, Andrew Dice Clay, Marshawn Lynch, and Roman Reigns, among others. The film premieres today, ie, on August 6, on streaming giant Amazon Prime Video.