Review of Trading Places (1983) by Jesse O — 06 Feb 2013

I appreciate the film trying to portray something that almost an universal theme And that is what would happen if a privileged/rich person and an impoverished person traded places and seeing how they would each do in a different world and what they would do to survive.

I think this is a very universal theme and the film does have a good amount of social satire. But, somehow or other, the film isn't as funny as it thinks it is. The film doesn't exactly get into the complexities of how each character adjusts to the change in their situation for how much time they actually spend with them adjusting to the change.

I just think the movie would've benefited from more scenes of Dan and Eddie together instead of just leaving the majority of their scenes for the last act of the film. Because of that there's long stretches of the film where nothing funny really happens.

This mostly happens during the second act, and some of the third act, of the film. I don't know what happens, but the film isn't funny for a good chunk of time. Again, I get what the film was trying to do and it pulled it off well.

I think they get two perfect old rich assholes, in Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, to play the Duke brothers and they help get the story "over" in a way when a lot of the comedy doesn't work.

The cast is very good, the film's problems are never due to the cast, just the script. That's not to say the film isn't good because it is. It has plenty of funny moments but it also has plenty of jokes that just fall flat.

For example the stuff with the gorilla fell flat...none of those jokes worked, at all. So really, I'd still say this is a good movie with a fun cast but it's definitely a mixed bag as far as the comedy goes.