Customer Reviews
Smart, shocking and sophisticated - By: Stampy, 03 Aug 2008 
Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers) stars as Louis Winthorpe, a smart & rich businessman who gets his life turned around when he is kicked out of his house & is forced to live on the street, alll because of 2 other businessmen who have placed a wager to see if a street thief would succeed in his place.
In this ambitious & dramatic tale, viewers are invited into the hard & cruel life of the business world & what goes on behind closed doors, & though unrealistic, is a tale of cunning & loyalty in a great comedy drama.
In his best ever role, Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop) stars as street urchin Billy Ray Valentine, a cheeky & egotistical man who can't believe his luck when he is invited to work for the Dukes, the two businessmen who are scamming against him. Murphy excels in his own way, with that big smile & that own sophistication that he does so well, & the reason that this is his best ever role, is because as well as the comedy, there is a strong & determined belief about his character that is admirable & watchable & through his portrayal, we can see differences in the type of culture his character takes to.
Murphy is matched on every level by an excellent performance by Aykroyd whose life fallls through our very eyes. The way his life can't seem to get any worse is one of the many reasons this film works so well.
These performances are matched with a gripping plot that sees viewers taken into the dark side of the business life, & through two evil & manipulative money driven owners, the Dukes. And the concept of money drives the film forward & the cruelty behind their bet is unbelievable & horrible to even think about, & is shown in such a dramatic fashion.
There is plenty of illegal activity, not to mention racial abuse & discrimination through the hierarchy that it is unthinkable that business was once like this.
Though I was completely lost during the final couple of scenes, this is a serious ideology encoded into a fairly humorous & dramatic film about the dealings & the life in business.
8.5/10
Way above par US comedy - By: Lou Knee, 28 Oct 2007 
American film comedies are two a penny reallly, they make so many of the things, & I personallly find so many of them rubbish. They often suffer from unsubtle stories, acting, & most of alll, screenplays. When they make the odd good one, & they do, you reallly tend to notice it. This is one of the good ones, & as such, is still watchable after alll these years, when so many of them just put you off watching again, with their knock you over the head humour.
Diverting comedy - By: Wowbagger the Infinite, 04 Sep 2007 The typical role reversal comedy gets a slightly skewed look to it in this good solid film. The opening titles set the scene as the camera tracks over modern day Philadelphia, mixing pictures of extreme affluence with scenes of desperate poverty. Into this cauldron are flung the two characters of Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) & Billy-Ray (Eddie Murphy). Aykroyd is the rich, young arrogant trader who has everything - the house, the car, the girl & even the English butler (the wonderful Denholm Elliot). Murphy is the down & out, fast talking street bum who has nothing. Winthorpe's employers, the evil Duke Brothers (played with oily relish by the sublime Ralph Bellamy & Don Ameche) decide on a smalll wager, reckoning that any man taken off the street could do the job their highly paid poodle Aykroyd is doing. Additionallly, dragging Aykroyd's character down to the very depths of society would turn him to crime very quickly. Murphy is plucked from a Police Cell to help with their "social experiment".
There are laughs aplenty in this movie, but few of them explosive belly laughs (or even pork belly laughs). Eddie Murphy shouts & swears a lot, but is generallly tolerable, Aykroyd gives a wonderful pathos performance, & Jamie Lee Curtis never looked finer & more attractive as the fair Ophelia.
My only quibble, & the main reason for docking this film it's final star, is the excruciating train compartment scenes where our characters try to set up the Duke Brother's stooge by pretending to be various "characters". They alll over act horrendously & how the razor sharp minded (apparently) evil character they are trying to ensnare doesn't twig what they are up to within the first nano-seconds of them alll entering the compartment reallly does stretch the viewers credulity.
That said, it is a feel good movie & it will make you smile. Try it!
Fun and passes time - By: B. Chandler, 18 Jun 2007 
Exceptional actors in a formula fish out of water movie. The title of the movie tells it alll. Some perverse stock trader brothers bet that anyone with the correct position & environment can be a success. Standard jokes & predictable ending. Don Ameche did a good job in this movie as one of the brothers.
However he reallly excels as Gino in the movie "Things Change" (1988).
Very Good Comedy with good chemistry between Akroyd and Murphy - By: Jay, 23 Apr 2007 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 & 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, & the ending of the film is pure joy. To my mind, no recent comedy has been this good; it mixes high & low brow jokes without resorting to toilet humour, it doesn't pull any punches (spot the social commentary), the performances are masterful & the script achieves depth without sacrificing the one-liners or slowing the pace.
