TRADING PLACES: Have a VERY Murphy Christmas!

  For a Christmas Night movie, I can think of nothing better!  These days, it seems that Eddie Murphy can do nothing right.  Outside of the Shrek movies, Murphy has done nothing of value since ANOTHER 48 HOURS.  Watching his career lately has been like watching a trainwreck….you just wonder how spectacular the crash will be!  While Murphy goes from bomb to bomb, we remember a time when he could do nothing wrong.  Everything Murphy touched in the 80s turned to gold.  And TRADING PLACES may very well have been at the top of that list.  This movie is gut-splitting FUNNY!!!  Murphy plays homeless man Billy Ray Valentine, who is handpicked by Mortimer and Randolph Duke, to be a guinea pig for their experiment.  The Dukes want to see what happens when they take a successful up and coming stock broker, and replace him with a homeless person.  The bet is for one dollar!  What follows is classic!

  The cast isn’t too bad either.  Dan Ackroyd plays Lewis Winthorpe III, Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy play the Dukes, Jamie Lee Curtis plays a hooker who helps out Winthorpe.  The scene where Valentine meets the Dukes in the car is one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen---my sides hurt after seeing it for the first time!!   It’s a shame Murphy didn’t stick with comedies like this over the course of his career.  Instead, a great comedic talent has gone to complete and utter waste with garbage like Norbit, and all those other stupid movies he’s done since his hey day.  

 

10 out of 10