There’s been much talk lately of the decline of the movie comedy. But action-comedies, the movie comedy’s punchier, shootier, more explodey cousin, are all the rage — at least for streaming services looking for undemanding, easy-to-watch, pop-it-on-in-the-background fare. In the last year alone, we’ve had Deep Cover , Heads Of State , Love Hurts , Novocaine , Back In Action , Guns Up — and now The Pickup , starring Eddie Murphy.

Murphy would seem like canny casting: he is largely responsible for the popularity of action-comedies in their modern form, having starred in some of the greatest incarnations of the subgenre in the 1980s, from 48 Hrs. to Beverly Hills Cop . But in The Pickup , he is unwisely and disappointingly placed in the role of the straight

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