The Pick-Up Artist (1987)

In some other universe, there’s a cute romantic comedy starring Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr. Sadly I don’t live in that universe because they have fairly good chemistry together. Instead we have Downey as a New York City teacher who is also a pickup artist. We only see him do his pickup schtick a few times before he becomes smitten with Ringwald who after a very quick fling together doesn’t want to give him the time of day. She’s too busy trying to deal with the debts of her gambler alcoholic father, Dennis Hopper. Way too much time in the film is spent with them trying to deal with the loan shark mobsters after her father than on the love affair. I don’t know why so many 1980s films need to throw criminal subplots into the mix, but I don’t know if any of them ever improved a film.