A Piece of the Action
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A Piece of the Action
Plot
Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, co-stars of the comic capers Uptown Saturday Night and Let's Do It Again, team up again for this socially conscious comedy-adventure. This time out, Poitier and Cosby play Manny Durrell and Dave Anderson, Windy City con artists with a long history of cheating crooks who rip off the poor. They are blackmailed by retired cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) into "giving back to the community." Manny and Dave soon find themselves posing as career counselors for a group of surly inner-city youths at a local community center. Despite the efforts of such unruly kids as class clown Gerald (Eric Laneuville) and bitter Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), Manny actually begins to take pride in the help he's giving to his students. Soon, though, he's forced to deal with two additional obstacles: the arrival of his girlfriend's obnoxious parents (Gammy Burdett and Wonderful Smith) and the attentions of a local mobster (Titos Vandis) upset that he's been had. As with his previous Cosby collaborations, Poitier directed A Piece of the Action, whose cast also includes Denise Nicholas as a community center leader, Tracy Reed as Manny's girlfriend, Nikki, and Ja'net DuBois as Nikki's tipsy aunt, Nellie. ~ Brian J. Dillard, RoviReview
The third and final installment in the Bill Cosby/Sidney Poitier "trilogy," A Piece of the Action again abandons the characters and plot lines of previous outings to provide a new variation on the stars' buddy dynamics. The film also eschews straight-up crime comedy for something a little more socially conscious. Although the comedic bits prove too broad to gel particularly well -- unless one counts the unintentional humor in hearing Poitier meticulously intone, "You not dealing with a boy, titty-sucker" -- the caper elements provide a nice contrast to prevailing Blaxploitation stereotypes. As in Uptown Saturday Night and Let's Do It Again, the film's classy gangster schtick is borrowed from classic crime flicks rather than their gaudier '70s descendants. A Piece of the Action may not have seemed au courant at the time of its release, but its breezy entertainment has dated fairly well. The film also, however, offers a thoughtful streak during the plot thread in which Poitier (echoing his performances in The Blackboard Jungle and To Sir, With Love) teaches job skills to a group of inner-city youths. In stark contrast to such feel-good, white-savior mythology as Dangerous Minds and The Principal, A Piece of the Action treats the subject intelligently and from several angles, exploring downwardly mobile peer pressure and bourgeois guilt with something approaching real insight. The neat ending may not completely resolve such thorny issues, but for a supposedly lightweight romp, this film has a lot on its mind. ~ Brian J. Dillard, RoviCast
- Hope Clarke - Sarah Thomas
- Bill Cosby - Dave Anderson
- Ja'net DuBois - Nellie Bond
- Jason Evers - Ty Shorter
- Frances Foster - Bea Quitman
Credit
David Rawley - Costume Designer, Marie V. Brown - Costume Designer, Dwight Williams - First Assistant Director, Sidney Poitier - Director, Pembroke J. Herring - Editor, Curtis Mayfield - Composer (Music Score), Alfred Sweeney - Production Designer, Donald M. Morgan - Cinematographer, Melville Tucker - Producer, William J. McLaughlin - Set Designer, Willie D. Burton - Sound/Sound Designer, Wiliam L. McCaughey - Sound/Sound Designer, Henry Kingi - Stunts Coordinator, Timothy March - Screen Story, Charles Blackwell - Screenwriter, Timothy March - Screenwriter, Sioux Richards - Script Supervisor| A Piece of Eden (2000 Film), A Picture for Harold's Room (1971 Film) | |
| A Pig's Tale (1994 Film), A Pin for the Butterfly (1994 Film) |
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A Piece of the Action (film)
| A Piece of the Action | |
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 A Piece of the Action promotional movie poster |
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| Directed by | Sir Sidney Poitier |
| Produced by | Melville Tucker |
| Written by | Charles Blackwell Based upon a story by Timothy March |
| Starring | Sidney Poitier Bill Cosby James Earl Jones |
| Music by | Curtis Mayfield |
| Cinematography | Donald M. Morgan |
| Studio | First Artists |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | October 7, 1977 |
| Running time | 135 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
A Piece of the Action is a 1977 comedy crime film starring Sir Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. Poitier also directed the film. This was the third film pairing of Poitier and Cosby following Uptown Saturday Night and Let's Do It Again, and Poiter's last acting role for more than 10 years, as he focused his attentions on just directing. The film also stars James Earl Jones.
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Contents
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Plot synopsis
Dave Anderson (Cosby) and Manny Durrell (Poitier) are two high-class sneak thieves who have never been caught. Joshua Burke (Jones) is a retired detective who has enough evidence on the both of them to put them behind bars. Instead, he offers to maintain his silence if the crooks will go straight and do work at a youth center for delinquents. At first, the crooks are reluctant and unwilling (and so are the kids). As time goes by they gain the trust and admiration of the kids and they start to enjoy the job. All goes well until someone out of the past tells them they have to do one last heist...or else...
Remakes
In 2002, it was announced that Will Smith and his production company, Overbrook Entertainment, had secured the rights to the trilogy for remakes to star Smith and to be distributed by Warner Bros. Smith stated that he hoped to get Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and other famous African-American stars to be in the films.[1][2]
Cast
- Sir Sidney Poitier - Manny Durrell
- Bill Cosby - Dave Anderson
- James Earl Jones - Joshua Burke
- Denise Nicholas - Lila French
- Hope Clarke - Sarah Thomas
- Tracy Reed - Nikki McLean
- Titos Vandis - Bruno
- Frances Foster - Bea Quitman
- Jason Evers - Ty Shorter
- Marc Lawrence - Louie
- Ja'net Dubois - Nellie Bond
- Sheryl Lee Ralph - Barbara Hanley
- Ernest Lee Thomas - John
Soundtrack
Main article: A Piece of the Action (soundtrack)
References
- ^ Reid, Shaheem (March 28, 2002). "Will Smith Secures Rights To Sidney Poitier/ Bill Cosby Flicks". VH1. Archived from the original on 11 January 2010. http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1453124/03282002/smith_will.jhtml. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
- ^ "Denzel Washington and Will Smith to Team Up in Uptown Saturday Night Remake?". Internet Movie Database. January 5, 2010. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072351/news. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
External links
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