A Piece of the Action (film)

1977 film by Sidney Poitier

A Piece of the Action is a 1977 American crime comedy film directed by and starring Sidney Poitier and co starring Bill Cosby. It was the third film pairing of Poitier and Cosby, following Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and Let's Do It Again (1975). The films are considered a trilogy, even though the actors play characters with different names in each film. It was also Poitier's last acting role for more than a decade, as he focused his attentions on directing. The film focuses on two high class thieves who have managed to evade arrests. A retired detective blackmails them into working for a youth center and into assisting in the reformation of juvenile delinquents.

Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby) and Manny Durrell (Sidney Poitier) are two high class sneak thieves who have never been caught. Joshua Burke (James Earl 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 a past heist comes back to haunt them and they have to make up for it or else.

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and wrote: "It has its heart in the right place, I suppose, but its key situations are so unbelievable and its dialog so awkward that nothing helps". Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote: "A Piece of the Action is firmly on the side of the angels. It is possible to criticize its lack of originality and its transparent slickness; but these are flaws that must be balanced against its evident craftsmanship, its entertainment and its social conscience". Arthur D. Murphy of Variety noted that "the Warner Bros. release, easygoing and pleasant if longish at 134 minutes, looks good for the general market". Gene Siskel gave the film two stars out of four and called it "a patronizing, simple minded lecture on how young blacks can get jobs. You probably thought A Piece of the Action was going to be a comedy. It is, but only as an afterthought". Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the film as "uproarious yet poignant", with "generous, spirited direction" from Poitier. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called the film "a winning light entertainment" with "an exceptionally effective screenplay, which achieves a spirited, tangy blend of conventional caper melodrama, conventional romantic comedy and elonquent propagandizing on behalf of measures intended to encourage self reliance and self respect in black juveniles".

In 2002, Will Smith and his production company, Overbrook Entertainment, bought the rights to the trilogy for remakes to star Smith and to be distributed by Warner Bros. Smith hoped to get Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and other famous African American stars for the films.