Producers: Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Karen Lunder, Stuart Ford, William M. Connor and Patrick Newall   Director: Ron Howard   Screenplay: Noah Pink   Cast: Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney, Toby Wallace, Felix Kammerer, Jonathan Tittel and Richard Roxburgh   Distributor: Vertical

Grade: C

A bizarre episode that unfolded on Floreana, the southernmost of the Galapagos Islands, in the early 1930s is the inspiration behind Ron Howard’s fact-based film.  The fate of three groups of people who descended on the previously uninhabited locale, though with different purposes in mind, was described by two of the participants, but since their accounts differ radically, screenwriter Noah Pink, who previously toyed with history in “Tetris,” has gone beyond them, making adjustments for dramatic effect and indulging in speculation where they’re insufficient or contradictory.  The result is “Eden,” which smooths over the mysteries that remain in the so-called Galapagos affair and offers extreme melodramatics as dubious compensation.   

The first European arrivals are Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his companion Dora Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), in 1929.  As described here, he’s a physician who believes that the world is crumbling, and seeks solitude to write his philosophical manifesto, of Nietzschean bent, about human nature.  She’s a patient of his, a victim of multiple sclerosis encouraged by him to overcome her condition by sheer determination.  They carve out a primitive homestead for themselves with a vegetable garden, some chickens, and a burro that becomes Dora’s pet.

They’re surprised when World War I veteran Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), having read reports about the Ritters in the German press, shows up with his young wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney) and Harry (Jonathan Tittel), Heinz’s adolescent son from his first marriage, who suffers from tuberculosis; unable to afford treatment for the boy in Germany, Heinz hopes that he’d fare better in Floreana—as would he and Margret, freed from the rising fascist movement on the continent.  Ritter and Strauch are far from welcoming, installing the newcomers in a cave and hoping they’ll soon abandon the idea of remaining. 

But the worst is yet to come.  An imperious femme fatale who styles herself as the Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas) arrives with two lovers in tow—Robert Philippson (Toby Wallace) and Rudolph Lorenz (Felix Kammerer).  (The latter eventually reveals the truth about her past–perhaps.)  Using her considerable allure to keep the men in thrall, she announces her intent to build a hotel called Hacienda Paradiso on the island, and is willing to go to any lengths to support her extravagant lifestyle even in so unforgiving a place—indulging in theft and threats against the “neighbors,” even as Margret is at point of giving birth to Heinz’s second son.

Inevitably friction builds—it actually went on until 1934, though the period naturally feels compressed here—and ended with unexplained disappearances and deaths.  As portrayed in the film, what happened wasn’t far from an adult version of “Lord of the Flies,” with everyone’s flaws, magnified over time, finally bubbling over into seething hatred and mayhem.  There’s a relatively pacific interlude in a visit from Allan Hancock (Richard Roxburgh), a rich American businessman turned world explorer whose entourage includes a personal string quartet (they play Mahler, no less) and who’s smart enough to see through the baroness’ wiles.

The strangeness of this tale, even as refashioned by Pink (the 2013 documentary “The Galápagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden,” by Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine, doesn’t resolve the tale neatly as he does), holds one’s attention to the end, but Howard’s treatment is tedious for long stretches before turning overwrought in the final stages, particularly in a couple of scenes edited hysterically by Matt Villa. 

Two of the performances, moreover, border on the absurd.  Law portrays Ritter as a preening Prussian whose arrogance and smug self-centeredness takes on a proto-Nazi feel.  And de Armas is almost comical as a vampish diva who’s always perfectly coiffured and dressed to the nines despite the bleak environment.  Wallace and Kammerer are nearly as bad, while Kirby and Sweeney are subdued merely by comparison.  Only Brühl is at all convincing, something he achieves by underplaying.  Shooting in Australia, cinematographer Mathias Herndl captures a suitably desolate look, and both Michelle McGahey’s production design and Kerry Thompson’s costumes are similarly evocative, even if the baroness’ supply of satin dresses strains credibility.  Hans Zimmer’s score is appropriately spare.

As a result of the heavy-handedness of Pink, Howard and the cast, “Eden” turns a fascinating true-life mystery into something blunter and less ambiguous, as well as less interesting. 

Producers: John Davis, John Fox, Eddie Murphy, Tim Story and Charisse Hewitt-Webster  Director: Tim Story   Screenplay: Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider   Cast: Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer, Eva Longoria, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Jack Kesy, Andrew Dice Clay, Marshawn Lynch and Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’I   Distributor: Amazon Prime Video

Grade: C

As far as mismatched-buddies action-comedies go, Tim Story’s “The Pickup” isn’t the worst of the lot; though the laughs are in surprisingly short supply, given the presence of Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson, the frequent action scenes are pretty well handled.  But compared to the best examples of the hybrid genre, it’s a fairly tepid ride.

Murphy and Davidson play Russell Pierce and Travis Stolly, armored car drivers paired for the first time at a company run by aggressive bully Clark (Andrew Dice Clay).  Russell’s the stern veteran, anxious to finish the day’s run on time to make an anniversary dinner with his wife Natalie (Eva Longoria).  Travis is the young screw-up who’s failed to become a real cop in a police-minded family and is happy to be coupled with a legend like Russell.  He’s also in a good mood after having enjoyed a rare sexual romp with Zoe (Keke Palmer), a beautiful woman he’d met “cute” at a bank the previous morning—he’d pulled a gun on her when he thought she was robbing him, though she was only passing him a note with her phone number.

The trip across New Jersey does not go well.  After they exchange a good deal of bland banter, mostly consisting of Russell’s growing impatience with Travis’ stream of blather, the car is attacked by a couple of SUVs housing SWAT-attired bandits determined to bring it to a halt on an isolated patch of road.  The pair do a pretty good job of fighting their way out of the trap, with Travis showing some driving skill and Russell engaging in heroic efforts to eliminate the two guys, Banner and Miguel (Jack Casey and Ismael Cruz Córdova) trying to break in (one of the funniest bits in the movie is Murphy’s extended complaint about the damage his physical exertions have done to his fifty-year old body, a throwback to the riffs the actor mastered back in the day).  But they nevertheless wind up captured by the ringleader of the assault—none other than Zoe, who used her time with dim-bulb Travis to pump him for useful information.  Naturally, he’s anxious that Russell not learn of that, especially after she insists that they replace the two confederates they’ve eliminated from the operation.

Zoe explains that the purpose of her scheme isn’t to steal the car’s contents, but to use it to pick up a huge sum of cash from an Atlantic City casino.  But she has a good reason: she says the place shafted her father, a former security guard there, by denying him the recognition and benefits he earned years before.  Whether the tale is true or not, they reluctantly agree to her demands, and proceed to the casino where, while jumping through hoops to get the cash, they have a brief encounter with an MMA champion scheduled for a bout there.  He’s played by pro wrestler Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’I, whose cameo just might add to Amazon Prime’s viewership.

Naturally the heist, hardly the complicated stuff of which “Oceans” movies are made, doesn’t end things.  Not only do Banner and Miguel show up, angry at having been jettisoned from a highly lucrative venture, but so does Natalie, suspicious of why her husband has postponed his return for their planned celebration.  Lots of gunfire, fights and vehicular damage occurs before all is resolved to the satisfaction of the good guys—including Zoe, of course.  There’s also a coda indicating that Russell will enjoy a happy retirement with Natalie. 

Though Murphy is presumably the main attraction here, except for a few rants and reactions he actually plays second fiddle to Davidson and Palmer, whose chemistry might not be red-hot but otherwise play to their strengths reasonably well.  While Longoria has a few tasty moments as the feisty wife who thinks she might have been wronged, the numerous inserts devoted to Clay’s raging boss act like a succession of speed bumps in the action that Story and editor Craig Alpert already have a hard time moving ahead at maximum velocity because of the sedate expository scenes in Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider’s script.  Otherwise the movie’s fairly accomplished from a technical perspective, with a decent production design (Clay A. Griffith) and cinematography (Larry Blanford), as well as a score by Christopher Lennertz that follows the genre tropes note for note and decibel for decibel.    

“The Pickup” can’t hold a candle to pictures like Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop” or other similar favorites, but as far as armored car heist movies go, consider yourself lucky that you’re watching it, as mediocre as it is, rather than last year’s “Armor” with Sylvester Stallone, which played things deadeningly straight.  At least this one has a few intentional laughs, though not enough of them.