'The Pickup' review: Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson team in dull action comedy

WHAT IT’S ABOUT Roosevelt's Eddie Murphy plays Russ, a longtime armored-truck driver who is partnered with an eccentric rookie, Travis (Pete Davidson). What begins as a routine day turns into a disaster when three well-armed criminals attempt to commandeer the truck. To Travis’s surprise, the gang’s leader is Zoe (Keke Palmer), the attractive woman he slept with the night before. Soon, the two men become Zoe’s unwilling accomplices in a casino heist with a $60 million jackpot.

MY SAY It was only a matter of time before Murphy and Davidson, who rose to fame on "Saturday Night Live" some 35 years apart, teamed up for a feature film. Murphy, 64, is a comedy legend among Gen-Xers, while Davidson, 31, is as millennial as they come; the two have potential for a little Pryor-and-Wilder racial humor as well. With the right material, they could throw some sparks.

"The Pickup" is far from the right material. Its director, Tim Story, has a track record of Black-led comedies, from the classic "Barbershop" to the 2012 crossover hit "Think Like a Man." But he’s chosen a screenplay, by Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows, so full of cliches that his stars barely have room to breathe, let alone riff. This Amazon MGM original (coproduced by Murphy) seems mostly focused on staging car crashes and explosions in the hopes of fooling viewers into thinking they’re watching a real movie in a theater.

You’ll spot the setup instantly: After Travis pulls his gun on Zoe in a bank — oh, that's not a holdup note, it's her phone number! — he manages to bed her that very night. (And somehow keeps his job.) She was only using him to get information, of course, and that’s strike one for Travis: It’s hard to like a character quite this dumb.

Don’t expect Murphy to save the movie: His Russ is a no-nonsense guy who just wants to get home to his wife (Eva Longoria). He mostly grumbles and grouses, even with a gun in his face. Where’s the cocksure, charismatic star of "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Coming to America"? Here, it is with something akin to horror that you realize: My God, Murphy is the straight man.

So, what’s left? Only a meandering narrative, a small role for Andrew Dice Clay as a foulmouthed dispatcher and a hugely unconvincing romance between the whip-smart Zoe and the addleheaded Travis. As for Davidson, if you’ve always found his nebbish-on-hallucinogens persona an acquired taste, this movie won’t convert you (though he does get in a few amusingly off-color asides).

By the way, did you know Amazon will shut down its app store for Android on Aug. 20? Maybe that explains why Russ repeatedly mocks Zoe for her choice of phones: "Wait, is that an Android?" he sniffs. "Keep the money, you need it." Watch this movie on any device you like — it won’t improve the quality one bit.

BOTTOM LINE A dull action-comedy from producer Murphy that wastes his own talent.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com