Trading Places

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Cast & Crew

Dan Aykroyd
Louis Winthorpe III

Eddie Murphy
Billy Ray Valentine

Ralph Bellamy
Randolph Duke

Don Ameche
Mortimer Duke

Denholm Elliott
Coleman

Kristin Holby
Penelope Witherspoon

Paul Gleason
Clarence Beeks

Jamie Lee Curtis
Ophelia

Alfred Drake
President of Exchange

Bo Diddley
Pawnbroker

John Landis
Director

Aaron Russo
Producer

Timothy Harris
Writer

Herschel Weingrod
Writer

George Folsey Jr.
Executive Producer

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Critic Reviews for Trading Places

Audience Reviews for Trading Places

• Sep 21, 2018

  The Book of Job meets Pygmalion in this intelligent comedy that benefits from great performances (especially by Eddie Murphy), and, no matter how utterly implausible everything we see here is, at least it sells us the whole thing with enough conviction to make it a blast.
  Carlos M Super Reviewer
• Jun 13, 2015

  I am not sure why it took me so long to see this. Two comedy geniuses at the top of the game. It makes sense seeing as they are hardly ever seen in movies today.
  

  Ian W Super Reviewer
• Jan 28, 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.
  

  Chris B Super Reviewer
• Feb 06, 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.
  Jesse O Super Reviewer

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