{"id":3935,"date":"2024-09-10T21:24:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T21:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3935"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:48:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:48:11","slug":"the-pick-up-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/10\/the-pick-up-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pick-Up Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century Fox\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 81 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, brief violence, suggested sexual content, alcohol abuse)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Toback\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Toback\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Georges Delerue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 18, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Molly Ringwald, Robert Downey, Dennis Hopper, Danny Aiello, Harvey Keitel, Mildred Dunnock, Bob Gunton, Victoria Jackson, Lorraine Bracco, Vanessa Williams, Robert Towne, Victor Argo, Fred Melamed, Reni Santoni, Christine Baranski, Tony Sirico, Joe Spinell, Jilly Rizzo, Tom Signorelli.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $13.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0At just 81 minutes, The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> is barely a movie. Add a couple of previews and it\u2019s still less than 90 minutes; it\u2019s hardly worth the price of admission. Movies this short makes me wonder what was left on the cutting room floor. Would it make it any less convoluted? Possibly, but the question that should be asked is if the missing footage would make the movie any better. In the case of The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong>, I highly doubt it. I don\u2019t there\u2019s any amount of extra footage that could salvage this turkey of a rom-com. It would only make it longer. It\u2019s a lost cause.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For what it\u2019s worth, here\u2019s a rundown of the plot (such as it is). The central character is one Jack Jericho (Downey, Less Than Zero), a New York womanizer who practices his best pick-up lines in front of his bathroom mirror. They aren\u2019t all that good. He\u2019s fond of saying things like \u201cDid anyone ever tell you that you have the face of a Botticelli and the body of a Degas?\u201d He uses this line frequently, changing the artists\u2019 names at random to keep it fresh. He seems to do okay; he has a list with a lot of women\u2019s phone numbers on it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One day, he finally meets his match. He approaches Randy (Ringwald, Sixteen Candles) on the street and manages to charm her into a quickie in his car. Afterwards, she brushes him off. All she wanted was sex; she has no interest in a relationship. Women can play the game as well as men do, sometimes even better.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Randy\u2019s indifference only makes Jack pursue her more aggressively. He\u2019s become smitten with her. Part of the problem (other than not being interested) is that her plate is full. She\u2019s currently trying to settle her alcoholic father\u2019s (Hopper, Blue Velvet) gambling debts. He owes a vicious mobster (Keitel, Wise Guys) more than $25,000. Since Randy isn\u2019t willing to pay it off with her body, she has to find a way to raise the money herself or else her dad will be dealt with gangster-style. Once Jack learns of her circumstances, he offers to help. Is he being sincere in his efforts or is he just trying to get with Randy? Arriving at the correct answer doesn\u2019t involve rocket science.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Admittedly, The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> doesn\u2019t have much of a plot. Or it does, but does nothing with it, nothing interesting anyway. Most of it centers on Jack trying to convince Randy to give him a chance. This might have worked if Jack was somebody you could root for or even care about a little. He\u2019s not. He\u2019s a cad, a con man and an obnoxious pest. He\u2019s more smarm than charm. He works in BS like some artists work in ink, oil or paint. You never know if he\u2019s being sincere or trying to get laid. He\u2019s not a likable character yet we\u2019re expected to root for him to win Randy over. In the real world, a girl like Randy wouldn\u2019t give this joker the time of day. But The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> takes place in the reel world where unlikely couplings are an everyday thing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If Downey\u2019s character is intentionally unlikable, then I\u2019d say he turns in a good performance. However, I doubt very much this is the case. If The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> was a different kind of movie, he\u2019d have to answer for his womanizing ways at the end. He wouldn\u2019t have a happy ending. Of course, a movie like that would be a tough sell to audiences. Therefore, it\u2019s a rom-com that allows its flawed protagonist a shot at redemption. That leads to the question of whether Jack even deserves it. The movie never even bothers to ask. We\u2019re just supposed to accept it. But back to my original point, Downey is a good actor and deserves better than this. He does his best, but can\u2019t save The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> from utter failure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Even worse, it absolutely wastes the talents of some great actors. Before I get to that, I\u2019d like to say a brief word about Ringwald. The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> is her first adult role. Up until this point, she was a teen star who shone brightly in teen movies like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. She\u2019s left stranded in The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> with little more to do than stand there with her mouth open. It doesn\u2019t make full use of her abilities. You see a bit of it here and there, but it\u2019s nowhere near enough to save this dud.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now let\u2019s talk about the rest of the cast. The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> has some pretty big names in it like Keitel, Hopper and Danny Aiello (Moonstruck). Such major talent, so egregious a waste of it. Their characters are barely developed beyond the archetypes they\u2019ve played in other films. I\u2019m not even sure who Aiello\u2019s character was supposed to be. Is he a friend, father or father figure to Downey\u2019s character? The movie never explains this. He\u2019s important enough, however, to join Downey and Hopper on a road trip to Atlantic City to find Randy who\u2019s trying to make the money she needs in a casino. To be fair, Victoria Jackson of SNL has a mildly amusing supporting role as Keitel\u2019s girlfriend. That\u2019s as close to entertaining as this movie gets.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to be blunt here. The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> is a lousy movie. The most amazing thing about it is that it\u2019s written and directed by James Toback, a filmmaker who\u2019s done much better work. He wrote the screenplay for 1974\u2019s The Gambler starring James Caan (a great film!). He directed Keitel in the underrated 1978 crime drama Fingers. And even though Exposed (1983) wasn\u2019t all that good, he made excellent use of Nastassja Kinski\u2019s sex appeal. He totally drops the ball with The Pick-Up Artist<\/strong> but it\u2019s not entirely his fault. I have a feeling the studio made the cuts that renders it a royal mess. Still, he\u2019s better than this. This movie is a stinker on virtually every level. It\u2019s not even entertaining as an 80s artifact. This is one movie that\u2019s best left forgotten.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pick-Up Artist (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 81 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, brief violence, suggested sexual content, alcohol abuse)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Toback\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Toback\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Georges Delerue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 18, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Molly Ringwald, Robert Downey, Dennis Hopper, Danny Aiello, Harvey Keitel, Mildred Dunnock, Bob Gunton, Victoria Jackson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Pick-Up-Artist-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3935"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5532,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions\/5532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}