John Landis' 1983 comedy Trading Places takes a well-known premise (this is, for all intents and purposes, a re-worked version of The Prince And The Pauper) and effectively brings it into what was, at the time of its release, the modern day. The story introduces us to Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) and his brother Mortimer (Don Ameche). These guys are rich. VERY rich. And as very rich people tend to get bored, it would seem, they decide to amuse themselves with a little bet that winds up throwing the lives of two dissimilar men into disarray. Their intent is to figure out how much of your success in life comes from your environment and how much of it comes from genetics.

It's here that we meet Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), an ivy league educated commodities broker employed by Duke & Duke who would seem to have it all, and Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy), a homeless man who makes his living husting people on the street and committing petty crimes. Winthorpe is thusly setup to take the fall for some trumped-up charges, at which point he's knocked off his pedestal fast and hard. With him out of the way, Billy Ray is more or less shuffled in to replace him. He not only gets his job, but he gets all the perks that come with it: a huge home, a fancy car and even his own personal butler, a man named Coleman (Denholm Elliot). Winthorpe, meanwhile, falls in with a kindhearted prostitute named Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), the streetwalker that was hired by help take him down. She is much smarter than anyone really seems to realize. As Billy Ray gets used to his new lot in life, Winthorpe, with some help from Ophelia, decides to set out and make things right and prove his innocence, but of course this inevitably pits him against the Dukes…

The cast really makes this work. An early role for Eddie Murphy, Trading Places is nevertheless a pretty fine spotlight for his comedic abilities. He makes the most of this part, he's quite funny and shows both a quick wit for delivery and great timing as well. He and Dan Akroyd have great chemistry here in the scenes that they share together. Already well-established at this point, Akroyd is very well cast as the snooty Wall Street guy, contrasting very effectively with Murphy's streetwise crook. Supporting work from Jamie Lee Curtis and Denholm Elliot is quite good too, they definitely have their share of moments in the film, but Murphy and Akroyd remain the main draw for the picture.

The film also has a welcome social conscience. Not to overly politicize a comedy made more than thirty years ago, but the movie does make some interesting observations about the role of race in society and upward mobility as well as about the very rich's tendency to be out of touch with much of what the working class or the country's impoverished have to deal with on a daily basis. Landis is careful not to let the film get preachy here, we're never beaten over the head with the film's message, but it is there and it is part of what makes the movie effective.

Production values are quite solid here. There's a good score and really nice cinematography. The New York City locations are well-photographed and the movie does a good job of recreating for the silver screen the hustle and bustle of life in Manhattan, and how it can be so different for its populace depending on their social standing and job opportunities.

More importantly than any of that, however, is that Trading Places is very funny. Sure, it's a bit predictable and more than a little preposterous, but it's funny, occasionally even hysterical. It exploits its premise and holds our attention throughout nearly two-hour running time with ease.

Video:

The Paramount Presents of Trading Places arrives on Blu-ray framed at 1.78.1 widescreen in AVC encoded 1080p high definition that, according to the packaging, is taken from a new 4k film transfer. This leaves the older Blu-ray editions in the dust, with much improved color, detail and clarity noticeable right from the beginning of the movie. The image looks nice and filmic throughout, retaining the expected amount of grain but not really showing any real print damage to complain about. Colors look really nice, quite natural but very well defined, and black levels are solid. Skin tones look really good here as well, and there's a fair bit mot depth noticeable in the picture that past editions just didn't bring to the table.