Trading Places (DVD)

This is one of my comfort films - the sort I put on when I'm not feeling very well. I have loved this film for years and it's always a pleasure to watch whenever it is on the television. The premise of John Landis' cleverly entitled Trading Places (1983) is simple - do we get where we are through breeding or circumstance? Trading Places examines this issue in quite an exaggerated way but none the less it does make you think (in amongst the odd giggle) about what if life was different. The film doesn't even try to examine this idea in a clever or complicated way. You wouldn't hear anyone discussing this film and saying "ah but what the film is really about is" ...

It is hard to beieve that this film was made in 1983 but in a way it does sum up that particular time and generation as it is a comedy film based upon the basic greed of mankind and how we behave dependant upon our social standing. The two stars of the flm, Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy play two characters from very different sides of the tracks, Eddie Murphy is the wisecracking confidence trickster who is on the street hussling for money posing as a crippled Vietnam war hero while Ackroyd's character is a super snobby investment banker with a posh fiance and a life spent being pampered at his private club. Unknown to either the two bosses of Ackroyds character ...

I have to admit to having seen this movie countless times now...not because its exactly one of my favourites, or that I own the video or anything, but rather because it seems to be one of terrestrial televisons favourites for churning out every year for our viewing pleasure. Nevertheless, if its on I watch it, no matter how many times I have seen it before, because I still find it, whlst not hilarious, then at least a good way to spend a few moments and at least raise a few smiles. Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd star as two men at opposite ends of the social scale. Murphy plays a black, socially disadvantaged street hustler called Billy Ray Valentine who gets ...