Wednesday, November 27, 2024

The Pick-up Artist

James Toback – 1987 – USA
 
My first reaction to The Pick-up Artist was amazement that great actors like Harvey Keitel and Dennis Hopper could be wasted in such a blah movie. But on reflection, I see that they weren’t really wasted. They come off stellar as always. It’s everything else in the movie that’s dull. Robert Downey Jr is set up as a promiscuous ladies’ man in the first act, but then nothing more is made of the very subject that gives the movie it’s title. The rest is about him falling in love at first sight with fellow brat-packer Molly Ringwald. They don’t have much chemistry and their dialogue is too clever to be realistic. There’s a valid nostalgia factor in seeing 1980s New York City, and the film occasionally lights up when some fun supporting actors pop up in cameos, but overall, it’s pretty weak because it never successfully makes you want to see the two stars get together.


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