Directed by: John Landis
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Denholm Elliott, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Jim Belushi, Paul Gleeson
The villains of Trading Places, the super, duper rich Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Bellamy and Ameche) aren't content with being merely wealthy. They enjoy the power they exert over less wealthy and prominent people in the form of small wagers. In Trading Places, the Dukes argue over whether a person is a product of his environment or heredity. They concoct a scheme in which their brightest and most educated commodities broker Louis Winthorpe III (Aykroyd) loses his job, money, fiancée, home, and reputation. They are all given to street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy), who has no clue as to why he is suddenly rich hours after being thrown in jail for alleged attempted theft. The Dukes mercilessly revel in witnessing Winthorpe sink into disgrace and Valentine rise in the world of commodities.
Directed by John Landis, Trading Places is a funny movie with plenty of laughs and an inspired story to boot. Both men learn some things in their new environments, which is helpful in ultimately turning the tables on the Dukes. I'm sorry if I'm divulging a spoiler here, but if you haven't gotten around to checking out Trading Places in the 34 years since its release, then I don't know what to tell you. Part of the fun is observing Winthorpe's and Valentine's well-laid plan to disrupt the Dukes' attempts to corner the orange juice market and get even filthier rich in the process. They become so rich that even their butler Coleman (Elliott) has his own butler. Along for the ride is Ophelia (Curtis), a smart prostitute who initially helps in the plot to disgrace Winthorpe and then helps him to get back on his feet.
Aykroyd and Murphy are a great comic team. They play particularly opposite characters who have two things in common: intelligence and resourcefulness. Trading Places doesn't go for obvious laughs. Its best moments arise when it deals with small moments of truth and humor, such as when the Dukes give a club employee his "Christmas bonus", which turns out to be a $5.00 bill. The butler slyly comments, "I'll be able to go to the movies...by myself." A lesser comedy would have the butler scream four-letter and twelve-letter words at the Dukes. A lesser comedy would exploit the racial aspects of the plot for cheap laughs, but the movie mostly avoids those and prefers to deal with the human comedy involved.
Aykroyd is appropriately snooty, but not irredeemably so. Murphy is appropriately street-savvy, but not in your face. Trading Places doesn't have Aykroyd and Murphy hog all of the laughs. Winthorpe's encounter with a pawn shop clerk (played by Bo Diddley) and Valentine's party with uncouth guests from his street days are two truly memorable sequences. Oh, and a gorilla plays an important part in turning the Dukes' world upside down. Trading Places isn't a free-for-all. It isn't like some modern comedies, in which the movie hurls gag after gag, bodily fluid after bodily fluid, and bodily function after bodily function at you relentlessly until you go numb and don't laugh anyway. Trading Places takes its time, finds laughs in both small and big observations, and everyone involved in it is clearly having a great time.
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