Plot
A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
Release Year: 1983
Rating: 7.4/10 (44,486 voted)
Critic's Score: 66/100
Director:
John Landis
Stars: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Ralph Bellamy
Storyline Louis Winthorpe is a businessman who works for commodities brokerage firm of Duke and Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke. Now they bicker over the most trivial of matters and what they are bickering about is whether it's a person's environment or heredity that determines how well they will do in life. When Winthorpe bumps into Billy Ray Valentine, a street hustler and assumes he is trying to rob him, he has him arrested. Upon seeing how different the two men are, the brothers decide to make a wager as to what would happen if Winthorpe loses his job, his home and is shunned by everyone he knows and if Valentine was given Winthorpe's job. So they proceed to have Winthorpe arrested and to be placed in a compromising position in front of his girlfriend. So all he has to rely on is the hooker who was hired to ruin him.
Writers: Timothy Harris, Herschel Weingrod
Cast: Denholm Elliott
-
Coleman
Dan Aykroyd
-
Louis Winthorpe III
Maurice Woods
-
Duke & Duke Employee
Richard D. Fisher Jr.
-
Duke & Duke Employee
Jim Gallagher
-
Duke & Duke Employee
Anthony DiSabatino
-
Duke & Duke Employee
Bonnie Behrend
-
Duke & Duke Employee
Sunnie Merrill
-
Duke & Duke Employee
James Newell
-
Duke & Duke Employee
(as Jim Newell)
Mary St. John
-
Duke & Duke Employee
Bonnie Tremena
-
Duke & Duke Employee
David Schwartz
-
Duke & Duke Employee
Ralph Bellamy
-
Randolph Duke
Don Ameche
-
Mortimer Duke
Tom Degidon
-
Duke Domestic
Taglines:
Some very funny business.
Release Date: 8 June 1983
Filming Locations: 30th Street Station - 3001 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Opening Weekend: $7,348,200
(USA)
(12 June 1983)
Gross: $90,404,800
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
Goofs:
Continuity:
During the scene at the restaurant, when the man begins telling Valentine the 'S Car Go' joke, Randolph and Mortimer are eating dessert. When the joke is over, the two are now eating dinner.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Coleman:
[holding a breakfast tray while Louis is still asleep]
Your breakfast, sir.
User Review
Hugely funny film - Eddie Murphy's finest moment
Rating: 10/10
Right from the opening credits, this film shows quality. It stands above
other comedies due to the lack of filler material - every line is
memorable.
The cast is great; the two leads make the most of their characters (both
as
brokers and bums) but never overstep the mark, thanks partly to the tight
editing. The plot becomes a little bizarre, but by that time you're
already
hooked, and the ending of the film is pure joy. To my mind, no recent
comedy has been this good; it mixes high and low brow jokes without
resorting to toilet humour, it doesn't pull any punches (spot the social
commentary), the performances are masterful and the script achieves depth
without sacrificing the one-liners or slowing the pace.
0