Trading Places (1983)

Trading Places (1983)

6/10

Starring

Dan Aykroyd

Eddie Murphy

Jamie Lee Curtis

Directed by John Landis

Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy teamed up in 1983 to give us a movie about a social experiment which was carried out by two stingy, greedy and evil men. Trading Places was a hit when it was done, being both critically and commercially successful. Seeing it now doesn’t take away anything from this movie, it is still fun to watch.

This John Landis directed movie tries to give answers to what some think about nature vs nurture being the result of what makes a man. Well, that is what the evil men did. They used the idea of luck and a nurturing environment and the reverse of such on two men to see if this will change them. One from a high horse to a criminal and the other from a criminal to sitting on a high horse.

The movie plot introduces the first person Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), he works for a commodity brokerage firm. The firm is owned by the wealthy Duke brothers and they are not just wealthy, they are dubious, stingy and greedy.

We also meet the second person, Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) who is a common crook. Louis and Billy run into each other with Louis making a scene and getting Billy arrested for absolutely nothing.

The men witness this and decide to conduct the above social experiment. They ruin Louis stripping him of everything and making sure he has nothing and his name was wrecked. Louis was not at the mercy of Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), a prostitute who was unwilling part of the people that ruins Louis, She has mercy on him and takes him in to care for him.

Billy was bailed from jail and giving everything Louis had and we are set to watch as these two struggle at first to get their life together then settle in to the new life they had. How things turned on its head against the Dukes, is for you to see when you watch this movie.

The movie is fun to watch and Jamie Lee Curtis on her own was just a thrill. It was fun to see how the experiment would go even though we know this is a movie and not a real life situation. As a movie Trading Places delivers in excitement, thrill and suspense. It makes you sit and wonder how things were going to turn out and how much you want to see these evil men get theirs served back on a hot plate.