Trading Places (1983)

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  February 11, 2012

  thmtsang

  Louis (Dan Aykroyd) is a wealthy man who has it all, respect, love, money. Billy Ray (Eddie Murphy) is a down and out. As part of a bet of a cruel bet, their lifestyles are switched. Good cast.

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  July 3, 2011

  movieguru12

  Hysterical comedy with Aykroyd/Murphy with a side of Curtis :) I really enjoyed it and had great elements of a good 80s movie :)

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  March 15, 2011

  garyX

  A manipulative pair of wealthy brothers make a bet which sees a small time criminal and a Wall Street stockbroker filling each others shoes. John Landis was one of the most consistent directors of American comedies of the time and here we see Frank Capra dragged kicking and screa... read moreming into the 1980s; tits out, foul-mouthed and all. It's essentially a comedy of manners with the underlying message that all men are equal give the same opportunities in life, and the snobbery that often comes hand in hand with privelege takes a pummeling at Landis' deft hand. The rich characters of this film are shown at best to be laughable ninnies and worst, morally bankrupt racists, while Eddie Murphy's ghetto hustler's savvy means he is just at home on Wall Street as he is on the streets. It's one of Murphy's early films (in other words he was still funny) but it's really Aykroyd who steals the show and all the funniest moments come from his descent into poverty-stricken Hell ("Those men wanted to have SEX with me!") Maybe not as funny as I remembered it to be, it still has a nice mix of morality message and funny lines and the two stars are ably supported by Denholm Elliott as the Jeeves alike butler, Ameche and Bellamy as the insidious old coots and Jamie Lee Curtis' rack. One of the better comedies of the era and it has stood up pretty well.

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  March 11, 2011

  FrizzDrop

  There were a lot of aspects I truly enjoyed in this Landis comedy from the early 80's. Comedian Eddie Murphy is riding high from SNL and discovers his talent and versatility in a role that explores his acting chops. There are tons of great performers including Don Ameche, Ralph B... read moreellamy, and the writing team of Franken and Davis. Still, the plot, dialouge, and scenes were lacking at every turn. Murphy was only given a meager amount of time to develop his character, while Akroyd was given sufficient screen time to show a boorish heave of a man. Jamie Lee Curtis' presence, I deemed unecessary, and the topless scenes were obviously unecessary as well. Just needed fine tuning.

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• 
  
  January 16, 2011

  ajv2688

  A good cast, an interesting story, and some laughs. Unfortunately it's not funny or interesting enough. This movie could have been better, but as it is it's okay.

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• 
  
  May 27, 2010

  mumby1988

  If someone came up to you and pitched a film starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, and directed by John Landis, they wouldn't get many takers. Both actors' careers seem in a constant state of freefall: for every Dreamgirls there's a dozen Norbits, and for every Chaplin there's a... read more dozen Coneheads. As for Landis, he's been creatively at sea since the 1980s ended, and many people still haven't forgiven him for Beverly Hills Cop III.
  
  It is therefore both gratifying and refreshing to learn that putting this trio together was once a winning combination. Trading Places is a really funny, really smart social satire which finds both its stars and director at the top of their games. It marries Landis' trademark blend of comedy and wry intelligence with a series of likeable performances and a sharp script, producing an undisputed comedy classic.
  
  Trading Places shares many elements with Pygmalion, Anthony Asquith's adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play. The play may have no mention of stockbrokers, or beggars, or Harvard for that matter, but the central argument of nature vs. nurture is a twisted extension of the relationship between Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering. In Pygmalion, Higgins sees Eliza Doolittle as a plaything, a whimsical distraction for him to work on, while Pickering is quick to see her as a human being and is constantly sympathetic. Mortimer and Randolph Duke see their 'scientific experiment' as a plaything too -- the only difference is that both are ultimately playing Higgins, with neither displaying any kind of sympathy for Winthorp or Valentine.
  
  It would be easy to set up this premise of nature vs. nurture and then forget about it in the pursuit of a quick gag. Instead, Landis lets it play out to various extremes, with the laughs coming from a brilliant balance of whimsy and black comedy. Part of the Dukes' bet involves Winthorp and Valentine switching behaviour -- one becomes desperate, the other civilised. And it is scary just how quickly Murphy starts acting like Aykroyd. He invites all his friends from the bar back to his house, but then gets offended by them not using coasters and ends up ordering them to leave.
  
  Aykroyd's transformation is similarly striking, with his fall from grace being matched by his declining patience and manners (though his snobbery remains intact). He begins the film with perfect hair and a spotless suit, and ends up stuffing a salmon down his front while dressed as Santa. Landis shoots these scenes with the same blend of comedy and pain that he perfected on An American Werewolf in London. Take the brilliant scene with Aykroyd standing in the street having been thrown off the bus. A dog urinates on him, the rain starts falling, he puts a gun to his head and finds that it's empty; he then throws the gun away, only for it to go off in the distance. That is Landis at his best, piling on the pathos so we believe in the character before giving us relief with a really good joke at the end.
  
  If you go into Trading Places expecting the hard-hearted satire of Wall Street or American Psycho, you may be surprised or disappointed. Although it is in places as biting as those films, Trading Places is essentially light on its feet. It feels breezy, sassy and snappy; the lines trip naturally off the actors' tongues and it never feels like the director is making the action come to a standstill just so he can lecture the audience. Trading Places is ultimately a fairy tale, and in order to maintain the suspension of disbelief, it has to remain quick and funny. As he would later demonstrate on Into the Night, Landis is a master of sustaining and escalating comedy, so that even if something comes along which we don't understand, we keep laughing, and as long as we laugh the characters stay believable.
  
  The humour in Trading Places is wide-ranging, but it never feels like Landis is clutching at straws to keep the concept going. There are a large number of running gags, such as the black guy whose sole response is "Yeah", or Aykroyd's insistence that he wasn't dealing heroin, but angel dust. Eddie Murphy is at his fast-talking best, displaying none of the creepiness he has in The Nutty Professor but instead being utterly charming from beginning to end. His quick-fire style is well-suited to the rapid-moving world of the stock market, and his scenes with the Dukes are well-written to capitalise upon this.
  
  There is also an interesting undercurrent in Trading Places about how the ideals of capitalism and economic freedom have bred a culture based upon breeding and privilege. The lives of Winthorp and the Dukes are presented as caricatures of the English aristocracy: Winthorp begins his day with breakfast in bed and has a long-suffering butler waiting on him hand and foot. The social position of the stockbroker is like that of an imperial administrator, pacifying the serfs with talk of individual initiative but holding onto his own wealth through ruthless segregation between 'us' and them'. Such traits are found in visual gags all over the film, the best being the sign on the club, which reads 'Liberty and Justice for All', followed swiftly by '(Members Only)'.
  
  This paradoxical combination of enterprise and prejudice is also present on a racial level. The gentleman's club is largely white in membership, and when the Dukes offer their black waiter his Christmas bonus, it is a pitiful amount. The fact that the Dukes pick a 'negro' for their 'experiment' shows how deeply their prejudices are ingrained. They are happy to use Valentine to get what they want, but even if he were ten times as talented as Winthorp they would never allow him to run the company; they only agree to keep him on board to prevent market instability before the crop report. This encounter shows how friendship, loyalty and talent mean nothing in this world; no matter how many times Mortimer says "money isn't everything", we all know that matters to them is the wealth a man carries and how well he can use it.
  
  The central performances in Trading Places are superb. Dan Aykroyd excels himself, topping his work in both The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters in what his possibly his finest work. Murphy displays the same fiery attitude and quick wit which would serve him well in Beverly Hills Cop, and Denholm Elliott is perfectly cast as Coleman. Most impressive of all is Jamie Lee Curtis in the role which made her famous. Her character is resourceful, intelligent and self-sufficient, and comes with the same great comic timing that she would perfect in A Fish Called Wanda.
  
  Certain aspects of Trading Places haven't dated very well. Dan Aykroyd doing blackface is hard to stomach, especially in front of Eddie Murphy. In fact, the whole train sequence feels like a second-rate version of the toga party from Animal House. But taken as a whole, Trading Places is a first-rate comedy which has by and large survived the test of time. The jokes are funny and sustained for well over 90 minutes, the performances are believable, and the direction is very strong, built around a fitting cinematography of dollar greens and wooden browns. It is one of the funniest films of the 1980s and furthers Landis' status as a great director. American Werewolf remains his best film, but this is by far his best comedy.

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• 
  
  December 6, 2009

  ScoopOnline

  You cannt say this movie was boring. Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. I like the Scene when Dan now poor in Santa Clause Suit and stealing that huge Fish from Buffet. lol

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• 
  
  September 22, 2009

  SirPant

  John Landis and Eddie Murphy worked really well together. This is an old favourite staring Denholm Elliott, one of my favourite actors, Jamie Lee Curtis, who has a pair of my favourite breasts and is proof that Eddie Murphy was funny once!

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• 
  
  September 16, 2009

  FireStormStudios

  Trading Places is a great comedy. It touches on a few financial issues, personally and with society, while it lets Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy do what they do best, and that is make ht audience laugh. I think this is a must see for anyone who like their style of comedy and eve... read moren a few who don?t.

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• 
  
  June 17, 2008

  middleeasternfilms

  One of my favorite early comedies I remember seeing in the 80's featuring two untouchable actors from that genre during that period. Add the insatiable Jamie Lee Curtis, Indiana Jones vet Denholm Elliott and old-time actors Ameche and Bellamy and this should go down as one of the... read more best comedies during this period. A classic.

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• Eddie Murphy as Billy Ray Valentine
• Dan Aykroyd as Louis Winthorpe III
• Ralph Bellamy as Randolph Duke
• Don Ameche as Mortimer Duke
• Denholm Elliott as Coleman
• Jamie Lee Curtis as Ophelia
• Kristin Holby as Penelope
• Robert Curtis-Brown as Todd
• Paul Austin as Trader #1

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

• 
  Coming to America (86%)
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  Arthur (94%)
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  Conan the Barbarian (32%)
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  Beverly Hills Cop (93%)

• • Billy Ray Valentine: I can't walk.

• Who directed Trading Places, Coming To America and The Blues Brothers?  Answer »
• In this movie, some of the last lines are: "...Looking good, Billy Ray..." "...Feeling good, Winthorp!..." What movie is this?  Answer »
• "Trading Places" was Eddie Murphy's __ Film?  Answer »
• In Trading Places, How much money did Mortimer Duke(Don Ameche) bet Randolph Duke(Ralph Ballamy) if Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy characters change places?  Answer »

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