The Pickup Parent Guide
Staring at the wall is a more productive use of time than sitting through this film.
Parent Movie Review
Veteran armored truck driver Russell (Eddie Murphy) just wants today’s shift to go smoothly so he can get to an anniversary dinner with his wife (Eva Longoria), but his cocky new partner, Travis (Pete Davidson) is more interested in bragging about his weekend hookup. Russell’s hopes of a speedy route are dashed when the two men are ambushed by a group of criminals who aren’t interested in a simple burglary: they want the armored truck and a little help from Russell and Travis to pull off a much larger heist.
In my humble opinion, a boring movie is far worse than a bad one. At least bad movies have some entertainment value, but a boring one has nothing to offer other than taking time away from your precious life. And The Pickup is a perfect example. It is so boring, bland, and forgettable that it feels like 90 minutes of nothing. I may as well have stared into space for that amount of time; I would have enjoyed the same level of stimulation.
What I don’t understand is that the concept of this production makes sense. A heist flick with Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer? That sounds great! And to be fair those three actors have great chemistry and are trying: they just aren’t given anything to work with. The story is nonsensical, Palmer’s character makes no sense, and the heist itself is dull. I guarantee that by tomorrow I will have forgotten this movie exists, and I bet the cultural zeitgeist will have forgotten it too.
With high amounts of negative content, specifically language, sexual discussions, and violence, this flick is not a good choice for most audiences. I am more willing to overlook some of those content issues if a movie is at least interesting, but The Pickup can’t even be bothered to be that. This film deserves its likely fate, which is to sink to the bottom of Prime Video’s large catalogue where no one will ever find it.
Directed by Tim Story. Starring Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer. Running time: 94 minutes. Theatrical release August 6, 2025. Updated August 8, 2025About author
The Pickup
Rating & Content Info
Why is The Pickup rated R? The Pickup is rated R by the MPAA for language throughout, some sexual references and violence.
Violence: Characters get held up at gunpoint, shot, beat up, kidnapped, and tied up. Characters are knocked unconscious. A character is run over by a truck. Cars explode.
Sexual Content: There is some explicit sexual discussions and references.
Profanity: The script contains over 50 sexual expletives, over 50 mild and moderate expletives, six terms of deity, and two crude gestures.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Adults drink alcohol in some scenes. A character talks about getting drunk.
Page last updated August 8, 2025
The Pickup Parents' Guide
What are Zoe’s motivations, and do you think her actions are justified? Is breaking the law ever justified? Does it matter which laws are being broken? Is it ok to break the law if violence isn’t used? Why or why not?
Home Video
Related home video titles:
Heist and caper movies are a popular genre and one of my personal favourites. For some high octane viewing, you can try The Sting, Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, Ocean’s 8, Going in Style, The Italian Job, Goldfinger, and Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2. Less well-known heist flicks include Mad Money, The Vault, Money Plane, The Hurricane Heist, Gold Brick, and Lift, Real life stories include The Duke and The Painter and the Thief.
If you want to introduce your kids to the genre, family-friendly heist movies include The Bad Guys, The Naughty Nine, The Nut Job,