Summary
Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson make a decent duo in this throwback caper that mostly stays on the road.
It’s funny how one film can be a microcosm for a career. Had it been made a few decades ago, Tim Story’s buddy heist film would’ve cast Eddie Murphy as the unpredictable rogue element riding shotgun with a grizzled veteran only days from retirement. But as Murphy has shifted into more family-friendly roles, he now plays the straight man opposite Pete Davidson.
In this throwback caper, the combination works fairly well. Russell (Murphy), a veteran armoured truck driver, is looking forward to an anniversary dinner with his wife Natalie (Eva Longoria) and an impending career change. He’s reluctantly paired with Travis (Davidson) for one last shift. When Zoe (Keke Palmer) and her crew attack the van — using intel from Zoe’s earlier fling with Travis — the unlikely duo must work together to keep the cargo safe.
The script from Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows wastes no time getting to the action, and that’s where it’s on the most solid ground. In the vein of Speed or Ambulance, it builds ticking-clock tension on the move. Yet, like Russell’s late-career pivot, the film abruptly swerves from a tight chase flick into a full-blown, logic-bending heist.
To its credit, it doesn’t stay in one lane — but it’s also here that it starts testing the limits of believability. In just 94 minutes, it manages to derail its own momentum with some implausible setups, mostly aimed at getting Natalie into the truck. You don’t cast Eva Longoria just to leave her on the sidelines — although Story certainly gives it a go.
Thankfully, the core cast mostly works. Murphy is in low-key getting too old for this shit mode, with flashes — like a back-and-forth about pancakes — that recall the Eddie of old. (There’s even a cheeky “Neutron Dance” needle drop for good measure). Davidson is more restrained than usual, though consciously written as the annoying sidekick. Palmer gets the best material, and arguably the only real backstory. By the time the film loops back to chase mode, logic has left the building — but it hardly matters. The film is running on pure momentum.
If this were 1985, or even 1995, it’d be playing in multiplexes and offering two hours of brain-off escapism. That it now lands as perfectly adequate streaming fodder says more about the state of cinema than it does about THE PICKUP itself. It asks very little of its audience, but delivers just enough cheap thrills in return.
2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Tim Story | WRITERS: Matt Mider, Kevin Burrows | CAST: Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer, Eva Longoria, Andrew Dice Clay, Marshawn Lynch | DISTRIBUTOR: Amazon MGM Studios/Prime Video (International) | RUNNING TIME: 94 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 6 August 2025