Review of Trading Places (1983) by Tim W — 05 Feb 2014

Trading Places is certainly a goofy and over the top comedy, but one that remains funny more than 30 years later. Eddie Murphy excels at these eccentric roles, and the script is meant to be unrealistic but entertaining nonetheless.

Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) is a well off day trader, but you can see his life isn't that realistic or genuine. Those around him, even his fiancee, seem to be simply a thinly veiled layer of relationships surrounding him.

We also meet Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) who is a homeless man pandering for money while pretending to have various physical impairments to collect more money. The film's story revolves around Winthorpe's bosses, two elderly brothers who are just as rich as they are in lacking morals or compassion, who make a one dollar bet on the nature of heredity vs.

environment with Winthorpe and Valentine swapping roles to test this theory. As we see Valentine move up in the world we see Winthorpe basically be kicked out on the street with nothing he once had and this causes him to go mad.

Valentine eventually befriends Winthorpe as the two find out about the plot by the brothers and choose to beat them at their own game. Trading Places is lighthearted and eccentric in its humor and dances on the absurd at times.

Still, this is a funny and entertaining comedy that still remains so today.