MovieChat Forums > 52 Pick-Up (1986) Discussion > Sorta whack by todays standards...

Sorta whack by todays standards...

posted 17 years ago by TheRenegadeTaoist
13 replies | jump to latest

I'm a huge Elmore Leonard fan... but the 80's were just not a good time for attempts at "B-Movies" because they came off just like that... pretty predictable and thereby relatively whack. There are quite a few sharks being jumped and cows being dropped in this film. Not cool at all. Thank goodness for Jackie Brown/Rum Punch.... I also hear there is a treatment and actors (Don Cheadle & Matthew McConaughey) for Tishimingo Blues in the works... also completed are KillShot (Mickey Rourke & Diane Lane), 3:10 to Yuma and works on Freaky Deaky...

"This is Jack Burton in the Pork Chop Express, and I'm talkin' to whoever's out there."

[–] InMemoryof_MP 17 years ago

This is a very good thriller.The 1980's had some of the best thrillers.I don't know where your accessment comes from.Todays thrillers are the predictable ones.Films like "52 pickup " set the bar.

[–] archer1949 17 years ago

If they made it today, it would be slick and sanitized for the PC multiplex crowd.

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah...

[–] melsen 17 years ago

Yep, it'd be total MTV crap today, thank God for the cool '80s.

[–] nutsberryfarm 13 years ago

crack is whack. not this movie.

Silver Lining Accounting Service: "We satisfy or we eat it."

[–] Snow79 17 years ago

No....this is a cool movie. Clarence Williams is one scary friggin' dude. The scene with the teddy bear is pretty intense. Well he is anyway. Vanity could have played it a bit better.
Loved the hair.. loved the price of smokes..

[–] deedeemv 16 years ago

This movie is WAY BETTER than any of the lame movies the OP named. This movie was smart, sleazy and tough. I'm so glad this was made in the 80's. I think I would puke on myself if this was made now with Steven Soderberg directing and George Clooney starring. ha. And it just doesn't get better than the cast in this movie. From the villians to the strippers to the "heroes".. it's all great.

[–] rogerscorpion 12 years ago

This was a great little movie. It revived Williams' career & introduced (or pointed out to me) John Glover--who I've worshipped ever since.

Carpe Noctem!

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] yatzo376 12 years ago

I think the 70s was the best decade for gritty,sleazy crime dramas, but 52 Pickup is a diamond in the rough.

To Live And Die in LA is another good one.

[–] rogerscorpion 11 years ago

I agree. Michael Mann! Even better, to me, is 1980's 'Thief', Michael Mann's feature film debut--starring James Caan &, yet another sex goddess, from the 60's--Tuesday Weld.

Robert Prosky, Dennis Farina, Willie Nelson. The casting in these films is amazing.

Carpe Noctem!

[–] franzkabuki 8 years ago

Judging by the number of times the characters called each other "sport" or "slick", one would think it IS a Michael Mann movie.

"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

[–] R_Kane (15828) 7 years ago

Amazing: an old thread where I agree with every post, except for the one by the OP! 52 Pick-Up is art trouve. I'm watching it, again, for the first time in over 10 years, and I am NEVER going to take it off my DVR. I don't care in what era this was made: this movie is The Friends of Eddie Coyle-level immortal.

Anne-Margaret: Yum!

[–] yatzo376 (7721) 6 years ago

Agreed!
The greatest 70s crime drama made in the 80s ... and just as good