Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1625 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-12-02
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 111 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In this crowd-pleasing 1983 comedy of high finance about a homeless con artist who becomes a Wall Street robber baron, Eddie Murphy consolidated the success of his startling debut in the previous year's 48 Hours and polished his slick-winner persona. The turnabout begins with an argument between super-rich siblings, played by Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche: are captains of industry, they wonder, born or made? To settle the issue, the meanies construct a cruel experiment in social Darwinism. Preppie commodities trader Dan Aykroyd (perfectly cast) is stripped of all his worldly goods and expelled from the firm, and Murphy's smelly derelict is appointed to take his place, graduating to tailored suits and a world-class harem in record time. Eventually the two men team up to teach the nasty old manipulators a lesson, cornering the market in frozen orange juice futures in the process. Director John Landis (The Blues Brothers) doesn't have the world's lightest touch, but he hits most of the jokes hard and quite a few of them pay off. Trading Places is also a landmark film for fans of Jamie Lee Curtis. --David Chute, Amazon.com

Special Features
1.78 Anamorphic Wide Screen
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English\Mono French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital 5.1
Mono
Arabic\Bulgarian\Croatian\Czech\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Greek\Hebrew\Hungarian\Icelandic\Italian\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Romanian\Slovenian\Spanish\Swedish\Turkish

Synopsis
As the result of a bet between two wealthy commodities traders, the lifestyles of a street hustler (Eddie Murphy) and a blue-nosed employee (Dan Akroyd) of the brokerage are reversed. The innocent victims of the bet scramble to make it in their new foreign environments, with hysterical results. Once they discover the switch played on them, they set out to exact their comic revenge on the execs, played by the grand old actors Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche..

Customer Reviews

Very Good Comedy with good chemistry between Akroyd and Murphy
Right from the opening credits, this film shows quality. It stands above other comedies due to the lack of filler material - every line is memorable. The cast is great; the two leads make the most of their characters (both as brokers and bums) but never overstep the mark, thanks partly to the tight editing. The plot becomes a little bizarre, but by that time you're already hooked, and the ending of the film is pure joy. To my mind, no recent comedy has been this good; it mixes high and low brow jokes without resorting to toilet humour, it doesn't pull any punches (spot the social commentary), the performances are masterful and the script achieves depth without sacrificing the one-liners or slowing the pace.

A True High Concept Classic
The film revolves around Randolph and Mortimer Duke, two incredibly rich speculators who operate on the derivatives market (when this film was made (1983) the futures market was still in its infancy, and you can learn a lot about the business from the film!)

They have a debate - not a new debate, but a thorny one nonetheless : is ability inherent in the way you are brought up (i.e. nuture), or is it inherent in your breeding (i.e. nature). They decide on a little experiment.... enter our two heroes.

Eddie Murphy plays a down and out, living on the streets, doing what he can to survive. Dan Ackroyd plays a futures broker, rich, successful, a huge house and butler, and a beautiful wife. Randolph and Mortimer decide to swap them (with the help of a unsavoury private eye named Clarence Beaks played superbly by Paul Gleason). Eddie becomes the high flying futures broker, and Dan becomes the down and out. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues!

There are many other reasons to watch this film, including superb performances from the likes of Don Ameche and the sadly departed Denholm Elliot, and of course the gorgeous Jamie Lee Curtis ensuring interest rises by revealing her assets (sorry - couldn't resist the banking pun).

PS : For those wonder how the Dukes turn out after the film, don't worry too much; watch Coming To America to see an inspired cameo!

Great Tale of Rags to Riches...
This is a great story. The Duke brothers make their traditional bet "$1.00" to see how a homeless man (played by Eddie Murphy) can take a high profile commodities broker position and be sucessful at it while they take the position away from Louis Winthorpe III (played by Dan Aykroyd) and make his life a complete disaster. Jamie Lee Curtis also stars in this all-star lineup. I would recommend getting this movie, Beverly Hills Cop and 48HRS which are Eddie Murphy's 3 best movies of his career. - Chad Castorina