Let's Do It Again

Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier play working class men who want to get rich. They come up with $20,000 for a scheme, but $18,000 of that comes from their lodge's building fund. The men take their wives to New Orleans and, while there, they see an opportunity in an inept boxer, played by Jimmie Walker, who has the opportunity to win the middleweight title. Poitier hypnotizes the boxer and makes him very confident, and the men pose as New York millionaires and place bets with a bookie (well played by John Amos) who later figures out what they did and wants to take advantage of the situation, possibly bringing down rival Biggie Smalls.

Cosby is his usual self, only hipper (especially when he dresses in wild outfits to pretend to be rich). It's a real pleasure to see Poitier in a role that you can laugh at, since most of his characters have been so sophisticated. The two men together are great, especially when they are trying to get out of jams. I especially enjoyed seeing Cosby pretend to be a big-time gangster while talking on the phone. Walker, of course, was one of the best buffoons in 1970s TV, and he doesn't disappoint here. Even when his character is confident and talented, he still has that cartoonish quality about him.

Curtis Mayfield's music, with vocal performances by the Staples Singers, added a lot to the movie.

It wasn't quite a family movie, but it was quite clean compared to similar movies being made today, with very little cursing and not much to really object to.

I had a good time.

This time Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby play 2 friends who belong to a group and were supposed to be raising money. They end up trying to train a boxer to beat the current champ by hypnotizing him. They end up getting their wives involved and Denise Nicholas has the best line of all - "Will you tell that girl to get that thing out of my face before I make her eat it?" THey are so over the top that it makes it even better. The supporting cast is pretty much the same as the previous movie. If nothing else, Sidney Poitier is keeping a lot of black actors employed! Once you get into it, you will truly enjoy it. Jimmy Walker isn't even the best part of the movie.

Although not as good as its predecessor, "Uptown Saturday Night", this sequel always provides some good laughs, especially if you overlook the wide-eyed Amos & Andy style acting of the principals (the worst perpetrator, oddly enough, being the typically stoic Sidney Poitier). Minstrel-esque hamming for the camera aside, this one is just plain fun to watch. Calvin Lockhart and John Amos are great comedic villains, almost playing their roles straight amidst the tom-foolery surrounding them.

As an African-American who grew up in the 70's, this and all the other Blaxploitation films provides a nostalgic, although somewhat exaggerated, look at life in the Black community. Put "Let's Do It Again" on a triple-bill with "Car Wash" and "Cooley High" and you'll have an entertaining blast from the past.

What is surprising is Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier didn't have an even more extensive directing career (at least 9 films to his credit) because "Let's Do It Again" is deftly crafted and funny.

Believe it or not, that's quite impressive in an era (1970s so-called Blaxploitation films) hard pressed to find material suitable to African American actors and comedians. In fact by the mid 1970s a few "Let's Do It Again" cast members joined the NAACP in blasting Hollywood for the evident paucity of material and roles for talented blacks because much of what emerged was exploitive stereotypes and had the effect of mainstreaming distorted ethnic and racial images.

In this movie, however, a bearded Bill Cosby (Billy Foster), clean-shaven Poitier (Clyde Williams) team up as do-good Atlanta fraternal order brothers who play the odds to "con" threatening criminal punks so they could cheerfully give gambling winnings to a pet charity. Of course, they have to impossibly hypnotize Jimmy Walker's reluctant and unlikely bone thin boxer (Bootney Farnsworth) enabling him to successfully fight heavier and craftier opponents; convince their beautiful but reluctant wives to go in on the con and, after pulling off a preposterous megabucks "sucker bet" caper, escape the played mobsters by hoofing it through a series of apartment buildings. In one of the cinema's longest and funniest foot chases ever, the duo dashes through an unlocked apartment door running smack into a dining room not quite interrupting a family dinner. The folks seated around the dining table are incredulous for a quick moment and, well, maybe we should leave a few surprises.

The movie doesn't escape the "Mack" flamboyance of the decade, nor did it avoid the annoying 70s "wah-wah" disco soundtrack but it doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator evident in other movies whose stars were African American. On the other hand, performances by Denise Nicholas (Beth Foster), Calvin Lockhart, (Biggie Smalls) deliver a sense of dignity that would not have emerged under the hands of any lesser director in that era.

In the pre-Huxtable Cosby universe, a comic actor shines. Of course, Cosby had resisted such notions during his successful run of the NBC-TV series, playing down and turning away Emmy nominations for Best Actor. In the younger Cosby's personna, there is none of the self-mocking. He's not playing a cuddly version of himself. He's perhaps funnier than anything he presented to the generation who grew up with the Huxtables and "Ghost Dad" (also directed by Sidney Poitier), which makes it plausible for younger viewers to dust off this more than quarter-century old relic and get a kick out of what Poitier was able to do with Timothy March and Richard Wesley's story and script.

Aside from not descending into the group of movies that fall under the category of 70s "exploitation flicks", there is no social comment here. "Let's Do It Again" will give us a grittier maybe funnier Cosby than anything Generation Xers are likely to remember. If you want to escape, indulge in popcorn and have a laugh, this is a fun film.

This is my favorite of the Bill Cosby/Sidney Poitier trilogy from the 70's. The chemistry between these two is fantastic.

Cosby and Poitier are friends and lodge brothers who are trying to save their lodge from demolition. They decide to take the meager building fund and place bets on a boxing match. The catch? The fighter they are going to bet on is a 5 to 1 underdog, and a hapless Jimmie Walker. Walker keeps getting knocked out by his sparring partners! How do they hope to win? Hypnosis!

The actors are all first rate and there is fun all around. These films were a nice contrast to the "Blaxploitation" films of the 70's, as they provided more positive roles for many black actors. John Amos and Calvin Lockhart are rival gangsters who take the bets and then go after Cosby and Poitier. Denise Nicholas shines as Cosby's wife and the always great Ossie Davis is the leader of the lodge.

Fans of the Cosby Show may be surprised by Cosby in these films. There is a great scene where Cosby and Nicholas engage in a bit of "dirty" talk in a restaurant. This is not Cliff and Claire Huxtable!

Poitier directed these films and shows great ability. The scenes are staged well and the shots are never dull. It's a shame he didn't direct more.

This film is worth it, if only for the scenes of Cosby trying to pass himself off as a gangster. His outfit has to be seen to be believed. Check this and Uptown Saturday Night and A Piece of the Action sometime.