LET’S DO IT AGAIN (1975)
Article 4336 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-14-2013
Directed by Sidney Poitier
Featuring Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Calvin Lockhart
Country: USA
What it is: Comedy

When they discover that their fraternal order will be evicted from their current location, two members hatch a scheme to raise the money by going to New Orleans and fixing a fight.

This is the middle of a loose trilogy of movies made during the seventies that starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier; the two actors appear to be playing different characters in each movie, so they really aren’t sequels in anything but spirit. This one takes a basic updating of the “Amos and Andy” concept and mixes it with a plot that one might expect from a Bowery Boys movie. No, it doesn’t really sound promising, but the chemistry between the two stars is palpable, Poitier’s direction is sound, all the acting is solid (including the performance of Jimmie Walker), and everyone seems to be having fun. The fantastic content involves the use of hypnotism as the method of making the fighters act out of character; I don’t think that element exists in the other movies of the trilogy, so I most likely won’t be covering them. The movie could have used a little pruning here and there; at 110 minutes, it’s too long to really support the slightness of the plot. Nevertheless, it’s a solid and entertaining mid-seventies comedy, with nice character touches to add to the mix.