It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Amiable Alan Long plays Chuck, a carefree young man who was hired to drive a vehicle - a bus converted into a mobile home - from Miami to Tallahassee. Along the way, he offers a ride to sexy hippie chicks Carol (Jill Senter) and Maureen (Gini Eastwood). Carol is more of a free spirit; Maureen is a little uptight, and she has misgivings about the whole deal. But she goes along, and the three of them have memorably bizarre experiences after taking a detour and getting stuck in the Florida Everglades.Directed by Bernard Hirschenson, who served as his own cinematographer, and written by John Winter (who plays the sleazy priest), this is truly one of those trash movies that you don't so much watch as experience. Not exactly harmless, it does take the viewer on a fairly grim journey, and offers a plethora of dreamlike images. Not that it's a "drug film"; far from it, as the characters never partake in that sort of recreational activity. It also exhibits a very spiritual quality as well as a surreal one. It has the kind of interesting elements that will have trash lovers fascinated as they attempt to interpret them - like that clown with the balloons, for example. His face is meant to be a shock when Maureen removes his mask, yet we never see what she sees.As the not-so-straightforward story plays out, we get some insight into these characters, showing us earlier key moments in their lives. As we get to know them a bit better, they become more engaging.Hirschenson and his crew definitely have an arty sensibility going for them. There is actually a painterly aspect to the images that they capture on film. The nudity and sex are likewise handled in this manner.Along with a handful of solid performances, and haunting music by Michael Rod and Patrick Adams, it is this aspect to "Pick-Up" that makes it more than run-of-the-mill trash, and makes it pretty hard to forget.Eight out of 10.

In 1972, the last Apollo mission landed on the moon and the country settled into its second Nixon administration and the residue of a turbulent decade that would slowly transform the optimism of the space program and civil rights era into an era of cynicism, corruption, and disco.Enter Chuck, Maureen, and Carol - each representing an archetype of these troubled times in a highly allegoric film (actually I found the character of Carol unnecessary to my thesis). Chuck is apparently driving his mobile home north through the Florida Everglades when he picks up the two aforementioned females. The mobile home is clearly a reference to the Apollo missions as it is equipped with a phone to some mystery home base (they even talk in astro-speak) and Chuck's outfit closely resemble Buzz Aldrin's wardrobe - at least how I imagine it.Maureen is hesitant to climb aboard and we soon learn that she is a seer, a soothsayer who combines her past experiences with a Catholic priest and her current worship of the pagan god (yep, you guessed it) Apollo to inform her trepidation. Maureen spends much time alone in the film visiting pagan temples in the everglades and reading her tarot cards. She interestingly calls Chuck an "Aries Superhero," and none of the men who landed on the moon were Aries. Is Chuck the next traveler to our lone satellite? Coincidence?What is most fascinating about Maureen's story is her encounter with two symbolic characters. A politician character named Max (clearly an acronym for Moon Astronaut Explorer) who promises her that he is 1000% for any issue she supports. He appears to have index cards for all possible positions (pro-choice, pro-life for example) and Maureen shoos him away, perhaps disturbed by his impossible math.A more interesting encounter is when Maureen meets up with a balloon wielding clown. She is amused at his collection of gas-filled spheres and takes one to hold. The camera angle starts to suggest that the balloon is a moon trying to eclipse the sun. This potential darkness disturbs Maureen, and the clown comes closer. The clown mask is suspiciously close to Richard Nixon's face and when he unmasks, Maureen flees in terror. Who was under the mask? My guess is that it was the doomed cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.I should mention that much of the movie involves gratuitous nudes scenes suggesting lots of casual sex and immoral romps. The everglades are also suspiciously free of alligators, although a pretty lame boar appears when our characters get hungry. My best guess is that the boar is often used a symbol of inner weakness, and we soon realize that Chuck may not be up for space flight. The sex is probably a biblical reference to God telling us to be fruitful, multiply, and try and get back to the moon (that part was omitted from the King James version so popular today).Nevertheless, this movie has peaked my interest in physics and engineering - and perhaps a field trip to South Florida is in the works.

I am beginning to think that I wasted my money on the Drive-In Cult Classics set!!!! This is the third movie that I watched from this 8-pack set and they are just getting worse and worse. I am not expecting academy award winners but I was expecting something at least watchable. The only good thing about this movie was the cool bus!!! I've seen hotter soft core porn on the late night Oxygen Channel show "Bliss". I do have to admit that the two lead women are 70's exploitation HOTTIES and that's why I'm giving this film 2 stars for obviously naked reasons. I sure do hope these movies in this set get better.

Don't let the abundance of positive votes for glowing reviews fool you. Packaged with other exploitation movies like Superchick and Malibu High, Pick-Up is nothing but pretentious wanderings filled with metaphysical mumbo-jumbo dialogue by Bernard Hirschenson who, no surprise, never directed again. Free spirited Carol and deep thinking Maureen hitch a ride with Chuck who must deliver a large RV from Miami to Tallahassee but somehow gets stuck in the Everglades where they prance around naked or partake in suedo-sacrificial ceremonies with Greek deities. Yeah, pure grindhouse experience there. At least the two young beauties bare their bodies consistently which is the only saving grace of this film. At some points in the movie a backstory is provided for the three travelers, albeit disjointedly, providing little insight into why they are at this particular station in life. I'm perfectly fine with the notion that Pick-Up has bigger meaning than I might give it credit, however this is not a movie that belongs in an exploitation collection. The cumulative score of 5.0 as I write this is more indicative of the fact that this is seen by most as an average at best film. This certainly is not an awful film, just not as good as some might make this out to be. Decide for yourself.