Metacritic Film

Trading Places

Starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, and James Belushi

MPAA RATING: R

Paramount Pictures
Comedy
118 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters June 8, 1983

Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy), a street con man and Louis Winthorpe III, a commodities broker (Aykroyd) agree to trade places after monied Mortimer Duke (Ameche) bets Billy Ray could pull in more money than Louis could on the streets.

WRITTEN BY
Timothy Harris
Herschel Weingrod

DIRECTED BY
John Landis

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

66 / 100

Critic Reviews

88 Chicago Sun-Times
But what's most visible in the movie is the engaging acting. Murphy and Aykroyd are perfect foils for each other.
88 Boston Globe
It's easily the best of the movies I've seen by the various "Saturday Night Live" alumni, and part of the reason it's funny and satisfying is that it doesn't strain. [09 Jun 1983]
80 Time
[Murphy] makes Trading Places something more than a good-hearted comedy. He turns it into an event.
80 Variety Staff (Not Credited)
Trading Places is a light romp geared up by the schtick shifted by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.
80 Empire Staff (Not Credited)
Saturday Night Live activist Murphy, capitalising on the promise he showed in "48 Hrs.," steals the show as the quick-witted Billy Ray Valentine in what is certainly more mainstream fare than the earlier SNL staffed capers.
75 TV Guide
Although it tends to rely heavily on slapstick in the second half, the movie provides plenty of laughs and is one of director Landis's best efforts.
75 The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Matthew Fraser
Trading Places, which is wildly funny at times, is Murphy's film. [10 Jun 1983]
50 Christian Science Monitor
Directed by John Landis with a surprising amount of class, though he lets some of his old ''Animal House'' vulgarity slip ostentatiously into the action.
30 Chicago Reader
Director John Landis is so deficient in basic storytelling skills that he must spend hours explicating the most elementary plot points while and Murphy are sidelined.

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