A pair of blue-collar buddies use hypnosis to turn a wimpy boxer into a champ in this crime comedy, which reunites actor/director
Sidney Poitier and comedian
Bill Cosby, stars of the similarly themed
Uptown Saturday Night. Clyde Williams (Poitier) and Billy Foster (Cosby) want to help raise funds to sustain the Sons and Daughters of Shaka Lodge, their local community group. Given that Clyde was trained as a hypnotist while in the military, the pair decide to con mobster Biggie Smalls (
Calvin Lockhart) by placing a high-stakes bet on a boxing match and then using hocus-pocus to transform skinny underdog Bootney Farnsworth (Jimmie Walker) into a bruiser. When Biggie finds out about their ruse, he and his thugs move in to reclaim their money, setting the stage for further laughs and sleight-of-hand. With a supporting cast that includes
Denise Nicholas and Lee Chamberlin as the protagonists' wives and
Ossie Davis as an elder at their lodge, Let's Do It Again also reunited
Good Times stars Walker and
John Amos to the silver screen. Cosby and Poitier would return two years later with
A Piece of the Action, though Lockhart, another veteran of
Uptown Saturday Night, would sit out the final team-up. Hip-hop fans will note that Lockhart's character provided one of the aliases for slain '90s rap star Christopher Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G. The soundtrack for Let's Do It Again featured
Curtis Mayfield songs performed by the the Staple Singers. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide