The Pick-up Artist (1987)

What's most amazing about this film is 5% of the IMDb voters gave it a "10"! I suspect they are all friends, relatives, or agents of members of the cast. Molly, who was only 18, and Robert are fine, however the story and script are pretty plain. Both of them are "gamblers", Downey is trying to pick up Molly, doesn't succeed until the very end, the day after she told him "we're not good for each other." Gangsters and Atlantic City gambling are involved. Some pretty high-powered actors, like Keitel, Aiello, Baranski, Hopper, Bracco, Gunton (Shawshank warden) are in it.

This film is one of those in Ringwald's "hit void" between "Pretty in Pink" and "Betsy's Wedding", the latter a hit only because of the rest of the cast. Although she has been in many films, very few of us have seen her since 1990. I wonder what happened to her promising film career?

Fmovies: What people were expecting from The Pick-up Artist I'm not sure. It is not a terribly original film, despite what personal attachment James Toback brings to the material as a filmmaker (it's been said he was basically writing Jack on his own experiences picking up girls), but it does work as entertainment within its parameters. We want to see this Jack Jericho, a lady's man who will go after any girl that's on the street or walking out of a shop, wise up and we know that he will when he finds the girl who will meet his match by not giving her number to him. This happens with Randy, who 'hooks up' with him but leaves it at that ("The phone number would mean the future," she says), and it just eggs him on to go after her - which is trouble, since she's in one of those I-owe-the-mob-such-and-such-money situations, which Jack rises to the occasion.

If you have seen one you may have seen another, or another. It's part screwball farce and part a on-the-surface 80's John Hughes teen comedy (how old Jack is is hard to say, though likely not much older than nineteen year old Randy), but there's something else that makes it interesting. The way Toback shoots and writes the movie, one might think some of the moves and mannerisms, and how he moves and is seen in New York City, may resemble a Woody Allen movie, or, to be further with a comparison, a French New Wave movie (look at Robert Downey Jr and tell me Jack Jericho couldn't be played by Jean-Paul Belmondo circa 1960). It's writing is based on formula- we know how Randy's conflict will be resolved, if not quite how Jack and Randy will turn out together- but it's sharp dialog and some actual wit, lines that let us know these characters are thinking and on their toes, that rises above the expectation.

Another thing is Downey Jr. Like with Toback's 1997 film Two Girls and a Guy, he adds another notch to the material as a likable sleaze (this time more likable than in 'Two Girls', after all in this film Jack lives and takes care with his grandmother). He isn't just another cocky ass, but a determined player who is given humanity and depth by RDJ. Ringwald fares almost as well, though it's hard to say if even at her best she's anywhere near the power of her male co-star; mostly she just reacts to things he says, or at one point does have a convincing crying fit after losing some money. Other supporting actors like Harvey Keitel, Dennis Hopper and Danny Aiello are wonderful to see, even if they're given characters that have a lot less depth than Jack and Randy. They're mostly set-pieces in the plot, but at least the actors have fun playing hard-nosed-mobster/drunk/concerned-friend respectively.

This isn't a romantic comedy to rush out to see, and it certainly isn't anywhere in a high pantheon of screwball farces or in league with his New-Wave influences. But it's a short trip that hasn't aged too badly thanks to the on-screen charisma of its leads and some nifty 60's rock music put to the scenes. It's almost, dare I say it, underrated in Toback's oeuvre.

Considering all of the on-screen talent, this should have been a good movie. And for the first thirty minutes or so, it still had some potential. Unfortunately, the story that dominates most of this movie is NOT interesting. Plus, I didn't find any of the characters to be likeable, which made matters much worse. So, despite a competent beginning, the film falls apart, and it was a chore sitting through the final minutes.

The Pick-up Artist fmovies. I saw a preview for this movie and happened to find it on an old VHS while glancing the thrift stores. When I first saw the trailer with Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr., I figured the movie had to be pretty good. I love Ringwald's work in the John Hughes films, and just like Downey in general so I thought I was in for a really funny, warm treat. Add to the cast Dennis Hopper, fresh off of an Oscar nod from the previous year's Hoosier's as well as Danny Aiello, Bob Gunton (warden Norton from my all time fave "The Shawshank Redemption) and Harvey Keitel, and you got what seems like a really fun comedy with a powerhouse cast.

And it starts off that way, but it takes some seriously wrong turns after the first half-hour and just gets progressively worse to the point where I wanted to take my eyes off the TV set. The so called "story" is very lame once the premise is established. Downey plays his usual sarcastic, self-centered character, who happens to be a womanizer here, who tries to put all of his smooth moves on Ringwald (what guy in the 80's wouldn't have tried though?). She at first is uninterested but he is her only saving grace when gangster Keitel and his hit men, kidnap Hopper playing Ringwald's father, and Downey is forced to come up with the ransom money to save Hopper and ultimately Ringwald's lives.

The problem here is with this fantastic cast, the story and characters should be much more interesting and likable, not bland and generic like it is here. The movie would have been better with Downey's character being the same and leaving more room for character development getting to know both he Ringwald's characters better and taking them on another crazy adventure rather than the stupid mob sub-plot that is the focus here. Ringwald also seems like she's trying too hard to be an adult actress here, and not be typecast-ed with her typical teen roles from her tenure with Hughes. Taking this approach however is not successful, as her character here is bland and unlikable. The movie would have been much better here, if she would have played a character similar to the ones she did in "The Breakfast Club," or "Pretty in Pink." When actors try hard to be different than their usual persona, they come across as unlikable and that's definitely the case with Ringwald here. Maybe if John Hughes would have directed this, it would have been a different, and certainly much better movie.

Also, the supporting cast is entirely wasted and all characters are underdeveloped. Hopper seems like he is doing a much more comical version of his character from "Hoosiers" here, and it gets rather annoying quite quickly, especially considering he played the same character exactly a year before and did it much better then. He is also given very little to do, and the fact he receives screen credit is ridiculous, this could have easily been an extended cameo, and a bad one at that. What a waste of Hopper's fine talent. Fortunately we have better movies in his career before and after this to remember him by like "Easy Rider," "Hoosiers", "Blue Velvet" and "Speed".

Keitel is also annoying here, playing his usual tough-guy role, and he forces it so much that after a while it just becomes plain laughable. That role works for other movies but doesn't cut it here. He is wasted here, and given a bad role. Even Joe Pesci or Danny De Vito would have been better suited for this part, and coul

The essence of this film, contrary to other statements at this site, is dealing with addiction. Each of the central characters has an addiction - alcohol, violence, gambling, womanizing. The Pickup Artist deals with the consequences and self-destructive nature of these specific addictions, as well as addictions in general. The dialogue is extremely witty. The acting is superb; four actors in this film have won, or been nominated for, Academy Awards - including Robert Downey, who is one of only a handful of actors that could have portrayed Charlie Chaplin - the greatest comic genius of all time.

What a lesson in film-making!

Let me report that among date movies, very few age well. This one has improved remarkably with age.

Part of the reason is the two main actors. Molly is her most striking here. She's absolutely at her peak in what she does, which is a sort of sassy, deliberately fostered innocent/wise cuteness. No one can do this today, and the attempts are depressing. Kate Hudson? We all die a little when she tries.

And then we have Downey. He's already heavy into drugs and he doesn't have the drugged discipline he had in "Chaplin." But he has an energy that is so appealing. Undisciplined, druggy energy would usually be just dispersed effort, but this is a date movie, something that depends on misregistration of self.

And look who surrounds them: Aiello doing his working class avuncular bit. Keitel being such a movie gangster they bleeped his every speech. And Dennis Hopper! That man who is a permanent token of intoxicated risktaking. Three solid marks in film characters, all portrayed by their inventors.

You can see that the filmmaker is a writer. The script is actually very good. Very good indeed for what it is and the assets that are available. The direction is so inadequate it hurts. But it hurts in exactly the right way. This is a film about stretching, about yearning without touching. Its all about inadequacy in love, a sort of reality-tinged inadequacy overlain on the romantic comedy template.

Because the camera is always in the wrong place, is always too tentative, is always unsure of itself, but still goes, still goes...

It puts us in the thing as one of these kids, clumsy, bold without cause.

I recommend this. I do. Its problems work for it.

Molly has faded as a presence now. But that's inevitable because of how we all exploited her youth. We shouldn't think that she is a flake, like say Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts. This very year she starred in one of the most intellectually ambitious movies of all time, Godards "King Lear." And more recently, she was in a Greenaway film. No stupid actor would do that.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.