A Piece of the Action (1977)

An old school film helps a healthy heart

"Gentlemen, I want to be fair and relieve your minds. Neither of you knows what my business with the other one is. Therefore you are safe from each other. This is confidential. Trust me."
- Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones)

Well, this movie is more mainstream than the typical blaxploitation due to the stardom of Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, "A Piece of the Action" was the third and last pairing of this sequel. The film's plot is quite weak but the charm is still there. Charming crooks Dave Anderson (Cosby) and Manny Durrell (Poitier) are high-class con men who have never run afoul of the law. Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) is a retiring detective with enough evidence on the both of them to put them behind bars. He offers to maintain his silence if the crooks will go straight and do work at a youth center for delinquents. Thus our story line kicks off but goes nowhere fast. At first, the crooks are reluctant and unwilling (and so are the kids). As time goes by, trust and admiration is exchanged (as well as cold cash) and progress is made to get jobs for the kids.

The film walks a difficult path between comedy and social commentary but feels very comfortable to watch. Some of the dialogue is over done but others are truly heartwarming...I teared up twice on different occasions. Poitier trades on his performance as the school teacher who brings a London East End class to life in To Sir, With Love. Cosby's performance leans more toward his films that bombed, with mostly unrelated mugging and schtick making up his performance, that hopefully is improvised. Denise Nicholas as Lila French and Tracy Reed as Manny's girlfriend Nikki portray there roles quite well. A very young Sheryl Lee Ralph appears as one of the "delinquents," Barbara, and has a very dynamic scene in which she demands more respect from the instructors.

Close to the middle of this film do look for Poitier's older brother Cyril as the janitor of the youth center, Mr. Theodore, and soon-to-be star of television's What's Happening - The Complete First Season!!, as Raj, Earnest Thomas. The charm of the actors is really the best part of A Piece of the Action, and it shines despite the poor quality of the script. Another positive aspect of the film is the potent score by Superfly composer Curtis Mayfield, which also features singer Mavis Staples on some songs. It is good, clean, wholesome comedy. If you're from this era the memories will hit you strongly from the clothing, music; even to the "language."


March 7, 2008

A Piece of Redundancy

I dig the whole 70s genre thing man; but the ongoing mob-money, flip the script thing is redundant in light of the same spin from the previous "uPTOWN sATURDAY nIGHT", and "Let's Do It Again".

The cast is fantastic and the sound track is outstanding. I feel the script didn't do the cast justice. I guess it was just a product of the short-comings of the stereo-typical roles for that era. Hey, I thought Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were going to remake one of these films..holla back. March 13, 2007

A Piece Of the action

Delicious Main Attraction...Your Share...A Piece Of The Action... Go get and keep/file it in your DVD Library under the "never get rid of" category.

August 29, 2006

A Piece of the Action........

Once again, Sidney Potier and Bill Cosby come together but this time with more of a serious tone (as much as can be achieved with Cosby and Potier onscreen together.) James Earl Jones, awesome as usual, and an extraordinary supporting cast make the movie a piece you should not miss. July 10, 2006

"Delicious"

For me this is the best movie both Sid & Bill have done. A very good storyline (especially for those days) complete with an exellent brand of comedy & marvelous soundtrack to add that cherry on top.....
This gets a 5*
And Tracey Reed (sidney's woman) gets a 50,000000*
If I ever saw her Id have to put my Mack game on her - Im only 25 but hey 'I Aint Never Scared' March 17, 2006

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