Featured Audience Ratings

• Melvin W

  
  Billy Ray Valentine: Hey that's the motherf- I mean... that's the gentleman that had me busted.  "They're not just getting rich... They're getting even." Trading Places is one of the best comedies of the 80's and maybe ever. It's my personal… More
  Billy Ray Valentine: Hey that's the motherf- I mean... that's the gentleman that had me busted.  "They're not just getting rich... They're getting even." Trading Places is one of the best comedies of the 80's and maybe ever. It's my personal favorite Eddie Murphy film and probably tied for my favorite Dan Aykroyd and John Landis film(the other of course being The Blues Brothers). What we have here was an instant comedy classic, that is as much fun as it is funny. There's not a moment of wasted screen time. It's smart, it injects a variety of different forms of humor, and it's fast paced and widely entertaining. There's not much more you can ask for from a comedy. This is the cream of the crop.  So, two greedy, manipulative, and corrupt investors make a bet. The bet involves two totally different men. One, Louis Winthorpe runs the Duke brothers investment firm and has made them a lot of money in the process. He comes from a good environment. The other is Billy Ray Valentine, a hustler who makes his money acting like a wounded Vietnam vet. He came from a bad environment. One of the Duke brothers believes that if they throw Louis into the bad environment, he will become a no good thief. He also believes that if they put Valentine into the good environment, he will be able to run the firm just as well as Louis. The other doesn't. It's all part of a fun wager until, Louis and Valentine get wise to it. There's a lot to love about the movie from the great performances from Murphy and Aykroyd to an Oscar nominated score. The versatility showed by Murphy and Aykroyd is what makes their performances so memorable. They both give two different performances within the same movie. Both must act like poor, beaten bums and like wealthy, high class investors. Neither of them waver at any moment and it's pure comedic gold. Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Paul Gleeson, and Jamie Lee Curtis are all very good as well. Trading Places is a must see comedy for all film lovers out there. It's one of those select few comedies that really stands out above the rest for me. It's up there, for me, with movies like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This is a comedic masterpiece and there's just no other way to describe it. If you haven't seen this before, watch it as soon as possible.

• Jason R

  
  One of the best movies. Ever.

• Chris W

  
  One of my many joys in life is sitting down to watch an Eddie Murphy film from the 80s, back when he was at his peak, and a true comedic master. This movie, a spin on The Prince and the Pauper, is a great example of prime Eddie. Directed by John Landis, this is the story of two ultra… More
  One of my many joys in life is sitting down to watch an Eddie Murphy film from the 80s, back when he was at his peak, and a true comedic master. This movie, a spin on The Prince and the Pauper, is a great example of prime Eddie. Directed by John Landis, this is the story of two ultra wealthy and bored brothers who, after bickering over the nature versus nurture debate decide to put it to the test with a bet that, if they can get a well to do white yuppie to switch places with a petty African American con man, that the black guy will thrive in high society, while the white guy will easily crack trying to make it as a poor man, and won't hesitate to turn to crime to survive. I won't give anything away, but I'll just say that the results are pretty funny. It's a decently sharp satirical romp that, despite a script that isn't that strong, still excels due to some fine direction, and some fantastic performances. Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd shine as the two guinea pigs, while Denholm Elliott is a true marvel as the butler who begrudgingly goes along with the scheme, originally serving Aykroyd's Louis, but becoming Murphy's Billy Ray's loyal servant simply because he is employed by those rich Duke Brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) who don't care who gets hurt as a result of their idle betting. Jamie Lee Curtis makes a memorable appearance as the typical hooker with a heart of gold who tries to help Louis out, while a number of fun appearances are made by Paul Gleason, James Belushi, Frank Oz, Bo Diddley, and Al Franken among others. All in all, this is a pretty good film. It's not quite a masterpiece, but it rises above the tried and true premise and makes for some really entertaining viewing. It's just a shame that basically everyone involved here hasn't really risen to the heights they hit here in a long time.

• Candy R

  
  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.

• Cassie H

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

• xGary X

  
  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 screaming… More
  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 screaming 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.

• Spencer S

  
  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… More
  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 Bellamy, 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.

• AJ V

  
  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.

• Daniel M

  
  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… More
  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 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.

• Wahida K

  
  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

• Anthony L

  
  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!

• Jon L

  
  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 even a… More
  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 even a few who don?t.

• Derek D

  
  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… More
  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 best comedies during this period. A classic.

• Lenny M

  
  Eddie Murphy trying to find himself as a comedic actor.

• Jason S

  
  Excellent comedy teaming. The flick was funny and Aykroyd and Murphy shine. The plot was simple but the cast made it something to watch.

• Lady D

  
  I'd forgotten what a funny film this was and it was one of those you could watch over and over. Great team of actors Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis

• Dean !

  
  One of my favourite Eddie Murphy comedies. He is a down and out who gets to trade places with a rich yuppie in a big firm in order to prove a bet. Very funny scenes as the two switch places.

• Stuart B

  
  a very funny comedy making the most of both Aykroyds and Murphy's comedic talents

• danny d

  
  eddie murphy at his finest, dan aykroyd is great too

• Dean M

  
  Excellent hilarious comedy classic! Jamie Lee Curtis looks bloody hotter and sexy!

Read all 20 featured audience ratings