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52 Pick Up
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by Starz / Anchor Bay
Sales Rank: 1913
Price: $5.99
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Adapting Elmore Leonard's novels for the big screen has often proved to be a hit-or-miss proposition (<I>Get Shorty</I> and <I>Jackie Brown</I> are notable exceptions), but director John Frankenheimer is mostly on the mark with <I>52 Pick-Up</I>. Leonard also co-wrote the screenplay, which stars Roy Scheider as Harry Mitchell, a businessman whose life is turned upside down when he's videotaped <I>in flagrante delicto</I> with his very young mistress (Kelly Preston); he's then approached by three bad guys (John Glover as vile ringleader Alan, Clarence Williams III as menacing gunman Bobby, and Robert Trebor as sweaty, nebbishy Leo), who demand big bucks from Harry in return for the tape. That's the plan, anyway. But Harry fights back. He confesses all to his long-suffering wife (Ann-Margret, fine in an underwritten part) and refuses to go the cops in order to protect her burgeoning political career; he's also unwilling to hand over the money, choosing instead to take on the villains, whose own mistrust of one another makes Harry's mission easier. All the elements one might expect are on display (including kidnapping, murder, and blackmail), coated with a patina of sleaze that features ample nudity (the bad guys also happen to be pornographers), profanity, and fairly graphic violence. Still, for all its arch tone, pithy dialogue, and a plot twist here and there, <I>52 Pick-Up</I> lacks the full measure of subtlety, tension, and excitement that would make it really good, instead of merely serviceable. The DVD includes no bonus material. <I>--Sam Graham</I>
Viewer Reviews
Clarence Williams played a reprehensible scumbag on this one. I guess when you're not offered much in quality movies, you get what you can. John Glover's "Sport" was really annoying. But then again, it must've worked well, because I really hated him throughout the entire movie.
The reviewers who think this was Roy Scheider's best performance, are nuts. What about "French Connection?" or "The Seven-Ups?" or even "Sorcerer?" This was not one of his best. This film was not "Ahead of its time" - it was a 1980's film; and looked it. Ann Margret relegated a part that could been played by any amateur, was also in need of a job and money to play in this stinker. But again, if you don't have studios calling for you as much as they were when you were young; this is what happens. (yeah, yeah - Grumpy Old Men 1983. Grumpier Old Men 1995)
No thrills. No spills. "SPORT!"
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