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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 14574
Released: June 12, 2007 |
| Our Price: $6.99 |
| Used Price: $8.96 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A businessman fights back against a trio of blackmailers. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 06/12/2007 Starring: Roy Scheider Run time: 111 minutes Rating: R
Description of 52 Pick-Up:
Adapting Elmore Leonard's novels for the big screen has often proved to be a hit-or-miss proposition (Get Shorty and Jackie Brown are notable exceptions), but director John Frankenheimer is mostly on the mark with 52 Pick-Up. 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 in flagrante delicto 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, 52 Pick-Up 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. --Sam Graham
52 Pick-Up Reviews:
Kind of a dumb movie. Okay, but dumb 
2008-10-06 - 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!"
"You're After Something Aren't You?" ~ The Consequences Of One Little Mistake 
2008-07-05 - If you like brutal, urban drama dealing with such dubious subject matters as; infidelity, pornography, blackmail and murder you should love '52 Pick-Up' starring Roy Schneider, Ann-Margaret, Kelly Preston, Vanity and a few other familiar faces. Released in '86 this hard hitting, uncompromising depiction of the underbelly of society is definitely not wholesome family entertainment. Of course it wasn't designed for that target audience.
'52 Pick-Up contains a well thought out storyline, numerous excellent performances and a good mix between action and dialogue. If you're looking for something, intense, edgy and dark this is the film for you.
Crime comes to L.A. 
2007-07-23 - Exciting movie that keeps you guessing until the end. Characters are well developed. Plot is interesting and clear.
Ahead of it's time
2007-07-15 - At the time this movie came out, Roy Scheider already looked an old man - especially seeing him now, starts me wondering what's his age now, anyway. Still, his acting performance is almost a classic one and Ann Margret is cast excellently as his wife that he betrayes.
True, some scenes are a little out of date now. They show that movie making has grown since but that's not always an improvement if you ask me. The specific scene where they put Scheider under pressure with a little home movie still is impressively nasty. And even Vanity - what has become of her, by the way? - puts up a nice performance as a very believable key person in the story.
This movie is about making the wrong decision(s) after making the wrong moves with the wrong people, almost a classical Hollywood theme. But it does just that in an artistic and stylish way with excellent actors and I have to add that it's a very good and entertaining movie that kept me glued to the screen then. And still like to watch it, now. Recommended.
Leonard and Frankenheimer get down and dirty
2007-06-20 - 52 Pick-Up was one of the few rays of light in the dark days when every screen adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel would go horribly wrong and when John Frankenheimer's name on the credits wasn't exactly a guarantee of quality any more, although it sank quickly due to a botched marketing campaign (the producers decided to play up the good reviews by touting it as `The best film this season from Cannon,' which is a bit like boasting about having the least contagious form of VD). A riff on his earlier Western The Tall T, this sees businessman Roy Scheider set up by a trio of blackmailers who, not taking kindly to him confessing his affair to his wife rather than pay up, murder his girlfriend with his gun so as not to miss out on their payday, only for Scheider to turn them against each other. While it's no Out of Sight, it's an effectively seedy L.A. thriller with a couple of outstanding supporting turns by John Glover and a seriously mucked-up and dangerous Clarence Williams III.
No extras at all, but it does have a decent 1.85:1 widescreen transfer.
