What's most visible in the movie is the engaging acting. Murphy and Aykroyd are perfect foils for each other.Landis' direction is deft, but the sparkling performances are the real draw not only by Murphy and Aykroyd but also by Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy as the meddling oldsters, Denholm Elliott as the gentlemanly servant and Jamie Lee Curtis.Trading Places is a comedy of unavoidable fits and starts.Trading Places also makes Eddie Murphy a force to be reckoned with.This 1983 film re-creates a screwball comedy format and then eliminates everything but the crudest audience-gratification elements; any incursions into the more morally complicated side of the genre are quickly curtailed.Trading Places is a light romp geared up by the schtick shifted by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.[A] shrewd but very likable movie.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.It's all outrageously contrived, and only surprising restraint by director John Landis makes it work. The writing is superb, too, leaving the two funnymen free to do the most inspired textured portrayals either has managed in movies.Edgy, bawdy '80s comedy not meant for kids....a fun-filled film all the way around.Preposterous lighthearted one-joke comedy....one of the most impressive comedies to emerge out of the 1980s.The story of a poor con artist and a wealthy commodities trader whose lives are suddenly swapped just isn't as much fun as it used to be.Eddie Murphy stars in one of his greatest roles.Because Eddie doesn't have to carry the whole movie, he is free to make every word that comes out of his mouth infinitely appealing.Hilarious chemistry between Aykroyd and Murphy.The rise of Valentine and the fall of Winthorpe are a source of great fun.