A snobbish Wall Street commodities broker and a wily street hustler find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaire brothers who run a brokerage house.
Pauline Kael’s review of TRADING PLACES sees John Landis’s comedy as rigid and dated, saved mainly by Eddie Murphy’s sharp energy and modern presence.
Trading Places is one of the most emotionally satisfying and morally gratifying comedies of recent times. Eddie Murphy demonstrates the powers of invention that signal the arrival of a major comic actor, and possibly a great star.
I didn’t expect (or want) Twilight Zone—The Movie to be Borgesian, but I did rather hope that John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, and George Miller—the four young directors who are paying homage to the TV series—would tease us with more artful macabre games than the ones of the old shows.
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