Trading Places (1983)

Starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Akroyd, and Jamie Lee Curtis, this movie’s idea is simple. In different circumstances and opportunities, would a rich man who became poor turn to crime and other pitiful activities to make it by, and would a criminal, given a better life excel in his newfound environment.

Murphy is the criminal who one day, on the whim of a bet, is given an upscale, well to do life of a successful businessman (Akroyd) and Akroyd is then framed and reduced to nothing, everything he had taken away in a heartbeat. Soon Murphy beings to excel, leaving behind and looking down on all that he was, and Akroyd soon turns to drinking, stealing, and attempted suicide to escape the hell that was now his life. But, by a chance of luck, both Murphy and Akroyd find out that they were the subjects of a terrible joke, two bored men playing with their lives for a simple transaction of a dollar.

In the end of the movie, they retaliate, and turn those men into what they thought was a joke, poor and hollow. This movie is a great role for both Murphy and Akroyd. Murphy is still at the height of his career, around the time of Beverly Hills Cop, funny and engaging. Akroyd play the part of a stuffy upperclassman perfectly, to a point where you don’t really think he is acting, only portraying a side of himself you secretly know is probably his predominant side. Jamie Lee Curtis is the lost hooker trying to make money off the whole situation, and really is just the pretty face in all of this.

It is rated R, and there are some parts that I am sure my parents wouldn’t like and would feel are unnecessary. I think the movie is solid, entertaining, short, and to the point, with a good splash of silly. I think most people that like Murphy in any of his early 80’s roles, and didn’t know about this one would love this movie.

Here are some similar arcade posts

• True Lies (1994)
• Stealth (2005)
• Red Eye (2005)
• Robocop (1987)
• Ray (2004)

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