Poitier, Sidney

Let's Do It Again

Back in the day, when Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, Issac Hayes, and Pam Grier were stickin' it to the Man, Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby collaborated on three buddy comedies that offered urban audiences an alternative to private dicks, sex machines, and bad muthas. The Uptown Saturday Nightstars re-team for an "outtasite" scam involving hypnosis, a hopeless beanpole boxer (Jimmie Good Times Walker), and two rival kingpins. Though in fashion and patois Let's Do It Again is a candidate for the '70s time capsule, it does hold up better than most of its more militant blaxploitation brethren. Poitier, the straight man, and Cosby, working his improvisational mojo, are a great comedy team. Worth the price of purchase alone is the sight of these icons decked out in flamboyant Mack Daddy duds to impress their marks, Kansas City Mack (John Amos) and Biggie Smalls (Calvin Lockhart). Curtis Mayfield's score, with vocals by the Staples Singers, is also good for the soul. --Donald Liebenson

Comedy about a pair of blue collar cons who raise funds for their fraternal order by hypnotizing a scrawny boxer into believing he's a mighty fighter then betting heavily on him. Trouble ensues when gangsters figure out their plot and seek payback.Running Time: 113 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085392888429

Stir Crazy

Sidney Poitier directed--without much distinction, sorry to say--this 1980 comedy teaming Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor as New York knuckleheads who try their luck in California and are accused of robbing a bank. Most of the laughs concern their survival strategies in prison (at one point, Wilder decides to "reach out and talk" to some hulking murderer) and their plans to escape. Both performers are so brilliant in any situation that they give this film plenty of funny moments (one or two of which became instantly classic), but this is not exactly a film for the ages. --Tom Keogh

The two main characters are unjustly imprisoned after being mistaken for bank robbers. In prison, it's all they can do to stay alive.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 28-AUG-2001
Media Type: DVD

Buck and the Preacher

Sidney Poitier made his directing debut with this 1972 action comedy with an edge to it. Made at the height of the Black Power movement in America, the film has an unmistakable militancy in its story of a wagon-train guide and a con man who team up to throw a posse of white nightriders off the trail of escaped slaves. Poitier has never been a distinctive filmmaker, and Buck and the Preacher certainly doesn't indicate any early signs of raw talent that later went undeveloped. But the film's energy and sense of fun, hand in hand with the suggestively political zing, make it watchable. --Tom Keogh

Ghost Dad

Ghost Dad

Hanky Panky

Wilder plays Michael Jordan an innocent by-stander turned victim turned hero. Kate Hellman (Radner) falls in love with him while looking for her brother's murderers. Together they are caught in a world of international intrigue suspense and murder. Ransom (Richard Widmark) a ruthless adversary is intent on eliminating Michael. Pursued by Ransom Michael and Kate embark on a bold mission which takes them on a wild ride in an airplane high above the Grand Canyon to a hidden military command center through a frenzied chase in the streets of New York and to a desert outpost where attackers besiege them from all sides.System Requirements:Running Time: 107 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 043396078895

Ghost Dad

Hanky Panky [Region 2]

Stir Crazy [Region 2]

Sidney Poitier directed--without much distinction, sorry to say--this 1980 comedy teaming Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor as New York knuckleheads who try their luck in California and are accused of robbing a bank. Most of the laughs concern their survival strategies in prison (at one point, Wilder decides to "reach out and talk" to some hulking murderer) and their plans to escape. Both performers are so brilliant in any situation that they give this film plenty of funny moments (one or two of which became instantly classic), but this is not exactly a film for the ages. --Tom Keogh

Ghost Dad/Bustin' Loose