Film

A Piece of the Action

A retired cop blackmails two smooth-talking con artists into mentoring troubled kids, hoping to reform all three groups at once. It's a breezy 1977 comedy about redemption through trickery, built on the chemistry between Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. Warm-hearted, occasionally funny, aimed squarely at audiences who believed people could change.

TMDb rating2.9

If you liked this

Uptown Saturday Night1974

Poitier and Cosby reunite in this heist comedy about two friends trying to recover stolen goods. It's got the same loose, improvisational energy and belief that working-class Black characters deserve to be the leads in a fun movie.

But The plot meanders badly, and what passes for stakes in 1974 feels weightless now. The comedy relies heavily on dialect and mugging that hasn't aged gracefully.

Uptown Saturday Night poster

Let's Do It Again1975

Poitier directs and stars alongside Bill Cosby in a con-artist comedy about two men running an elaborate scheme to help their community. It has the same optimistic spirit and chemistry you're looking for, with slightly sharper writing.

But It's still a 1970s comedy with all the attendant tonal unevenness. The pacing drags in the middle, and some of the humour hasn't travelled well.

Let's Do It Again poster

The Defiant Ones1958

Sidney Poitier opposite Tony Curtis as two escaped prisoners—one Black, one white—chained together in the South. It's a real film with real stakes, examining prejudice through the lens of an unlikely partnership. Poitier's deadpan timing is extraordinary.

But It's more serious than comedic, and the social message occasionally overwhelms the story. Some will find it heavy-handed, others essential; there's little middle ground.

The Defiant Ones poster

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Super Fly1972

Both believe their protagonists deserve to be the centre of a story, but they have profoundly different conclusions about whether escape from crime is possible or just a fantasy.

Ron O'Neal plays a cocaine dealer planning one last score before retiring. Like A Piece of the Action, it's about a criminal trying to get out, but here the stakes are real, the violence is brutal, and the ending doesn't promise redemption. Curtis Mayfield's score is transcendent.

But It's a blaxploitation film with all the attendant exploitation and moral ambiguity. The violence is graphic, and it never sentimentalizes its characters or offers easy answers. If you wanted comfort, this isn't it.

Super Fly poster
More like this (7)

Stir Crazy1980

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor are two ordinary guys framed for robbery and sent to prison. It's got the same con-artist energy and the same faith in comedy to find humanity in absurd situations, with much sharper laughs than Poitier and Cosby managed.

But The prison setting and sexual violence mean it goes to darker places than a feel-good romp should. The tonal whiplash is genuine and off-putting.

Stir Crazy poster

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?1970

An ensemble comedy about soldiers and townspeople learning to coexist. It shares the idealism about people changing through understanding, and the same loosey-goosey 1970s vibe that makes A Piece of the Action tick.

But It's deeply obscure for good reason—the script is scattered, the satire toothless. You'll spend the runtime wondering why this was made at all.

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? poster

Cotton Comes to Harlem1970

Ossie Davis and Godfrey Cambridge are two Harlem detectives solving a crime involving a con scheme. It's a Black-led comedy-mystery with real affection for its community and characters who feel genuinely smart, not just played for laughs.

But The mystery plot is secondary to the comedy, and the mystery itself is thin. Some scenes run too long, banking on improvisation instead of structure.

Cotton Comes to Harlem poster

Claudine1974

Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones anchor a romantic comedy about a cleaner and a garbage man navigating love and class in Harlem. It's funny, tender, and takes its characters seriously. Jones brings warmth and intelligence to every scene.

But It's a romance first, and the class commentary can feel preachy. The ending ties things up too neatly after raising real questions about poverty and work.

Claudine poster

Fast Forward1985

A group of kids from the Midwest travels to New York to make it in dance and performance. It's got that same earnest belief that young people can change their circumstances through talent and determination, with a genuinely great soundtrack.

But The plot is thin and predictable, and the film exists mainly to showcase dance numbers. If dance sequences don't move you, there's little here.

Fast Forward poster

The Mack1973

Max Julien and Don Gordon in a blaxploitation crime film about a pimp trying to go straight. It's technically skilled filmmaking that takes its protagonist seriously as a person with agency, even when he's morally compromised. A real curiosity.

But It glorifies hustling and the sex trade in ways that feel genuinely exploitative. The film's moral framework is muddied at best, harmful at worst.

The Mack poster

Killer of Sheep1978

Both centre the interior lives of working-class Black men, but Burnett treats trauma and weariness with silence and space, while A Piece of the Action believes in the redemptive power of a good con and a laugh.

Charles Burnett's meditative portrait of a slaughterhouse worker in Los Angeles, shot in black-and-white. It has the same unflinching focus on Black working-class life, but trades comedy for poetry. Every frame is composed like a painting. It's devastating and quietly beautiful.

But There's almost no plot. It's a mood piece about exhaustion, grief, and disconnection. If you want narrative momentum or comedy, this will feel like watching paint dry.

Killer of Sheep poster

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Claudine