Good idea to do a black working stiff comedy as a counterweight to the Blaxploitation stuff hogging movie theatres in the early 70s and maybe if it had been directed by Melvin Van Peebles or Michael Schultz it might have worked. But in the heavy, overly dramatic directorial hands of its star this is one slow, straight faced film. Scenes that should be snappy, like the robbery at a black bougy night club and the church picnic, just kind of lie there and actors like Richard Pryor, usually noted for hilarity, in Poitier's rather dour hands, elicit at best mild amusement. So even though the cast is fantastic, a potpourri of the finest African American actors and performers extant at the time, and even though it made a lot of money and spawned two even worse sequels this work has deservedly sunk into the swamp of the forgettable. Or, in other words, a solid C.
Review of Uptown Saturday Night
