“Trading Places” is a comedy movie where an upper-class commodities broker and an indigent street hustler are unwittingly made the subjects of an elaborate bet to test how each one would react when their life circumstances are swapped. Director John Landis (“Twilight Zone: The Movie” 1983) put together an engrossing and entertaining, and yet somewhat formulaic, comedy from the screenplay by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod.
Cast members seem to be a good fit in each role: Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy as the two principals, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche as the perpetrators of the bet, as well as Denholm Elliot, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Gleason, Kristen Holby, Jim Belushi, Frank Oz, Al Franken, and Giancarlo Esposito. This was a breakthrough performance for Curtis, as she was only previously know as a horror film star in projects like “Halloween” (1978). Bellamy and Ameche reprised their roles as brothers Randolph Duke and Mortimer Duke in Landis’ 1988 comedy “Coming to America,” also starring Murphy.
The watchable “Trading Places” was very popular at the box office for Paramount Pictures. It was nominated for one Academy Award for Best Musical Score (Elmer Bernstein).
Trading Places (1983)
cinema
My Review
“Trading Places” is a comedy movie where an upper-class commodities broker and an indigent street hustler are unwittingly made the subjects of an elaborate bet to test how each one would react when their life circumstances are swapped. Director John Landis (“Twilight Zone: The Movie” 1983) put together an engrossing and entertaining, and yet somewhat formulaic, comedy from the screenplay by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod.
Cast members seem to be a good fit in each role: Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy as the two principals, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche as the perpetrators of the bet, as well as Denholm Elliot, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Gleason, Kristen Holby, Jim Belushi, Frank Oz, Al Franken, and Giancarlo Esposito. This was a breakthrough performance for Curtis, as she was only previously know as a horror film star in projects like “Halloween” (1978). Bellamy and Ameche reprised their roles as brothers Randolph Duke and Mortimer Duke in Landis’ 1988 comedy “Coming to America,” also starring Murphy.
The watchable “Trading Places” was very popular at the box office for Paramount Pictures. It was nominated for one Academy Award for Best Musical Score (Elmer Bernstein).