Review of Trading Places (1983) by Harrison M — 31 Aug 2011

Trading Places is your typical eighties comedy at it's best. Following his hit big-screen debut in 48 Hours, Eddie Murphy followed it up with another terrific comedy in Trading Places Directed by John Landis. Murphy is matched all the way by Dan Aykroyd, Denholm Elliott, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, all of them breathing life and wit into a plot that has been done many times before. In fact, apart from the periodic nudity and foul language, Trading Places comes over as a very old-fashioned comedy story.

Murphy plays a Billy Ray Valentine, a street beggar who pretends to be blind and to have both legs amputated at the knee. Ackroyd plays Louis Winthrope III, an executive at the commodities brokerage house Duke & Duke. He lives in an enormous house and has a butler (Denholm Elliott). He's also engaged to the niece of his bosses, Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche). Life is good. It's about to get bad.

Randolph bets Mortimer $1 that he can reform the street person they have just had an entanglement with (that would be Billy Ray) and turn him into a commodities broker; and that if Winthorpe loses everything, he will turn to a life of crime. Thus, Winthorpe is accused of being a drug dealer and a thief and loses his job, his club membership, his house, and the butler pretends he doesn't know who he is. Winthorpe finds help and solace with a prostitute (Jamie Lee Curtis) as he tries to figure out how to get his life back. Billy Ray, meanwhile, is given all the things that Winthorpe had.

Murphy is hilarious as Billy Ray, particularly when he's on the street -you've probably seen his classic scene with the cops even if you haven't seen the movie. Aykroyd - well, you just feel awful for him - he is just so pathetic. And those Dukes! It's so fantastic to see Bellamy and Ameche in this film. Bellamy enjoyed a 60-year career, working until he died; and Ameche had a 59-year career and also worked until he died. Both men were fabulous as the sleazy Duke brothers.

Jamie Lee Curtis shows off her body and comic timing as Ophelia (right, Hamlet's girlfriend, she says to Winthorpe), and the supporting players - Elliot and Kristen Holby as Winthorpe's mannered and snobby fiancà (C)e, are great.

Although it can be argued "Trading Places" shows a bit of "age," its jokes and situations have held-up well, and are still as funny today, as back then. Besides, when you see a movie such as this again, several more years since its release, you get some added bonuses. You see Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, early in their careers, and Jamie Lee Curtis of two decades ago and not to mention the reminder of how incredibly smoking hot she was, along with the aging Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, who, along with the two excellent supporting actors (Denholm Elliot and Paul Gleason) are no longer with us. Trading Places is one of those comedies that stands the test of time.