Eddie Murphy teams up with Pete Davidson and Keke Palmer to pull off an epic robbery in new action comedy The Pickup.
It’s fair to say that Eddie Murphy is back on solid ground, and has been for awhile now. After a string of box-office duds (the less said about Norbit, Pluto Nash and Holy Man the better), he launched a comeback with 2019’s Dolemite Is My Name, followed by Coming 2 America, You People, Candy Cane Lane and last year’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
This week, Murphy returns with a high-octane comedy for Prime Video, The Pickup — in which he co-stars alongside fellow Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson. They play two mismatched armoured truck drivers who wind up ambushed by a group of criminals, led by savvy mastermind Zoe (Keke Palmer).
Zoe, however, is not just interested in swiping the cash from their vehicle, but instead forces the guys to assist in a casino heist. “As chaos unfolds around them, the unlikely duo must navigate high-risk danger, clashing personalities and one very bad day that keeps getting worse,” reads the synopsis for the film hailing from director Tim Story, whose previous efforts include Shaft, Ride Along and the Barbershop franchise.
“He’s an icon,” Story said of Murphy when he and the cast appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show. “He’s a big reason why I’ve made the movies I’ve made.”
During that appearance, Murphy revealed that he was eager to work with Davidson, having become a fan after seeing him on SNL. “I thought he was funny,” said Murphy.
“And he looked up to Eddie a lot too,” added Palmer. “It was really cool seeing y’all two together.”
For Palmer, acting opposite Murphy meant that the laughter wasn’t confined to the movie itself.
“So, we’re filming this scene, it’s about to be a very deep monologue scene — but the movie is a comedy! So I’m talking to Tim, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I should go too deep, how it should be.’ Eddie overhears, he steps in, he’s like, ‘This is a big moment in the movie. This is the moment where it all makes sense. You gotta bring it home.’”
Admitting that Murphy’s words led her to feel the pressure, Palmer gave it everything she had, unleashing her inner Angela Bassett to deliver what she felt was a killer performance. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Murphy on his feet, slowly clapping. That caused her to break character and offer him her sincere thanks — only for Murphy to quip, “I’m acting.”
“He gagged me!” Palmer said. “He gagged me to the ground.”
Murphy had previously vowed that he was through with action movies after returning to the genre with last year’s Beverly Hills Cop sequel. “I thought I was,” he said. “I was like, ‘Man, I ain’t jumping off no more s***, running and jumping, and just wind up doing it again.”
However, he explained that the opportunity to work with Story alongside Davidson, Palmer and co-stars Eva Longoria and Andrew Dice Clay was not one he could pass up. That said, he also insisted he’s not one of those Tom Cruise wannabes who proudly boasts about doing his own stunts.
“Oh, absolutely not,” he quipped. “I’ll do stuff that makes it look like it . . . but I’m not trying to get hurt — they have people that do that stuff, right? Even when I was young, I wasn’t jumping off stuff.”
The Pickup airs Wednesday, August 6 on Prime Video