A feeling of sparseness permeates Tim Story’s new action-comedy “The Pickup.” You see it in the small cast, the desolate settings, and the meager production values. If this movie were a western, then these elements might play to the film’s favor. But as an action-comedy starring Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer, it all reeks of overbearing cheapness to where we’re left to wonder why anyone would bother. There are no B-movie thrills to be had, nor an exchange of budget for subversive ideas. It’s like a Roger Corman movie without the down-and-dirty element. Instead, it plays like the Temu version of better buddy-comedy action films where no human hands touched it during production, and then in falls apart the moment you look at it funny.

Russell (Murphy) and Travis (Davidson)

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