The Pickup Review
Director: Tim Story
Date Created: 2025-08-06 15:58
1.5
The Pickup Review: Directed by Tim Story, the2025 Prime Video original film that brings together a big-name cast including Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Eva Longoria, Keke Palmer, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Jack Kesy, Andrew Dice Clay, Marshawn Lynch and others. The movie is a mere 94 minutes, which is intended to be a breakneck mix of action and comedy. Directed by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider, the movie is about two armoured truck security guards who get themselves involved in a heist to rob a huge sum of money that soon spirals out of control. With that configuration, I expected something exciting, zany, and edgy. Sadly, the movie never quite comes together for me.
The Pickup Review
The concept for the film is good. Two ordinary blokes — Travis and Russell — in the middle of an armed robbery, in the middle of a hostage situation? That is the kind of film that can easily get the balance right between action and comedy. The film does attempt to have some kind of emotional depth as well, as Russell’s relationship with his wife and what he’s going to do in his retirement. The cast is also filled with recognisable faces. I was looking forward to seeing Danny DeVito, Michael Peña, and Martin Lawrence join the cast alongside Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson. On paper, this should have been a crazy ride.
But the thing is, Prime Video’s The Pickup isn’t a movie that has a clue what it wants to be. Is it a comedy? An action movie? A buddy movie? A romance? It attempts all of them and fails at all of them. The jokes are a mixed bag. Some land, but most are forced or just weird. The action sequences are professional, but not memorable. And the dramatic sequences, which should have been the payoff, barely even existed.
One of the things I disliked most about The Pickup movie is how it treats the characters. Travis, played by Pete Davidson, is the underdog — a character we’re not supposed to take seriously but who tries to prove himself worthy. That’s an understandable interpretation. But his actions throughout the movie are so hyperactive that it’s difficult to support him. His affair with Zoe (Eva Longoria), the subject of the movie, happens so rapidly and is so superficial that I never believed it. The movie is attempting to get us to support their affair, but it didn’t help me out.
Russell, played by Eddie Murphy, is still better. His motivation is clear — he wants to retire and spend the rest of his life with his wife in comfort. I preferred his story, and the occasional scenes of drama with his wife were some of the film’s highlights. But even Russell’s narrative gets lost in the chaos of the robbery narrative and the fragmented pace.
Plot-wise, the movie The Pickup can’t help but point out how everything is completely over-the-top. There’s a casino heist, a double-cross, a gang of thugs with guns, a personal revenge story — all crammed into a short running time. At times, it felt as if the writers were throwing everything against the wall and seeing what would stick. What they’re left with is a movie that’s always doing something, but never actually meaning anything.
The second disappointment was how the movie develops Zoe’s back story. Fine, it provides you with depth of motivation. She’s not a criminal; she’s avenging her father. That could have worked. But the movie, once again, won’t commit to making her motivations concrete. I wasn’t concerned about her suffering, even though the screenwriters likely hoped that I would be.
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The show’s sitcom on Prime Video is also ubiquitous. Some jokes are attempting to be silly, some are attempting to be clever, and some are attempting to be dark humour. None of them land. One of the recurring jokes about a squirrel monkey, for instance, just came off as awkward. I love absurd humour when done well, but here it was more of a distraction than an amazing bit.
The only positive thing I can say is that the movie does wrap up on a light and fairly satisfying note. The last scenes, particularly the manner in which Russell receives a warm welcome surprise present, brought a small smile to my face. It’s a moment that promises that there might be a better movie, one of heart and of humour in just the correct amounts. Too bad it’s come too late.
Prime Video The Pickup Review: Summing Up
In short, The Pickup film is promising but lacking in delivery. The acting is good enough, and some plot twists are interesting, but the change in tone, lack of depth in characterisations, and non-continuous plot are a downer.
I’m a fan of action comedies and heist films, so I was particularly looking forward to seeing The Pickup 2025. I was more annoyed than I was entertained, however. It’s not the worst film I’ve seen this year, but it’s definitely something that I won’t be repeating. I applaud the effort at it — it’s a reaching to cross romance, action, and redemption — but it just wasn’t done, I think.
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