As much as Dan, Eddie, and Jamie deserve all the praise for this film, I feel that Denholm Elliott's portrayal of "Coleman" the butler is under-appreciated. The many, many subtle things he does in every scene are just perfection. The weary- and worried- look on his face when he finds his employer with his pants down: perfect. His wiping his hand after hanging up with the Dukes: "What a scumbag," as though simply holding the phone feels icky when talking to those two. As much as Akroyd's character is a total douchebag at the beginning, Coleman still feels that what the Dukes are doing is horrible, and though he loyally plays his role, there is a flicker of doubt and pity in his eyes when he has to claim not to know who Louis is. The look of bemusement at the drunk naked women at Valentine's party: don't usually see that kind of thing at Mr. Winthorpe's parties. His portrayal of a drunk Irish priest is hilarious. And of course my favorite of all: "Eggnog?" He says it with such fierce determination; all of his righteous anger and resentment at the Duke brothers funneled into a single, otherwise innocuous word. Just: "Eggnog?" He delivers it so perfectly. Elliott is a tremendous acting talent, with a career spanning decades; this supporting role is up there with my favorites of all time.

It's so easy to watch this and think, "Oh, that's Eddie Murphy, fully formed movie star" without stopping to realize that when this movie was released he had just turned 22 years old and this was his 2nd movie.

George's "considering" of Jamie Lee's form when she takes off her top was both my reaction when I was a kid and hilarious.

But without the train scene we wouldn't have gotten to see a young Al Franken. There are a lot of people in this movie who went on to become better known, like Giancarlo Esposito in the jail cell.

Don't ask me why but in Italy this movie has been on tv every single Christmas' eve since 1997. It has become a sort of tradition, to the point that when the channel tried to do something else in 2005 it received lots of complaints.

There's countless videos that explain the finale in detail, but the main thing is that *commodities futures* are contracts to either buy something that isn't actually available yet, or to sell something you don't have yet - at a specific point in the future, at a specific price. For crops like oranges, this allows people to hedge against dramatic price changes in case a harvest goes bad, but there's nothing on the books that says you can't trade futures contracts if you don't actually have the ability to produce or consume oranges. You're just promising that at a certain point (like April), you're going to pay someone for oranges, or sell oranges to someone, at an agreed price. So most of the people you're seeing in that pit have nothing to do with the actual orange juice industry - they're just speculators trading the contracts themselves around. In essence they tricked the Duke brothers into borrowing a ton of money to buy up the entire orange market, believing there will be a shortage and prices will skyrocket and cover the loan with plenty to spare. But because they got sent a fake crop report, there was no shortage, and when everyone else who tried to take advantage of the uptrend got caught out with oranges that weren't worth nearly as much as they'd hoped, Winthorpe and Valentine swooped in and bought them out at rock bottom prices as people tried to minimize their losses. It's sorta Chekhov'ed with the pork belly conversation earlier. This was so iconic that actual anti-insider-trading laws were passed that were inspired by this scene. (I'm not sure if they're still in effect, *eyeroll*)

Trading floors are now all computerised. In the days of paper trading an exchange member would effectively have unlimited margin within the trading day before trades were reconciled, so they really could lose everything if they were sufficiently over-confident. Edit: probably what was happening is that the Dukes were buying more orange juice futures than they actually had the money to pay for (confident that the price would rise and they could sell again before having to pay for them). Valentine and Winthorpe were probably shorting them, and then closed out their position after the news came in (that was the second flurry of actiivity) to walk away with a big cash gain. Edit 2: A less realistic part is which account they would be trading - they wouldn't be membrrs of the exchange and their trader IDs would be for Duke&Duuke. Maybe Winthorpe was able to get help from a contact at another firm.

“Hello, I am Inga from Sweden.” “But…you’re wearing lederhosen.” “Ya, Sweden for sure.”😂😂😂 I love this movie!!!!👍

You should really think about watching Brewster's Millions after this. Richard Pryor, John Candy, Rick Moranis... so many good actors. (Yakov Smirnoff anyone?)

If you want to see another classic Jamie Lee Curtis film, I totally recommend "A Fish Called Wanda." That film is incredible, and also features John Cleese and Michael Palin of "Monty Python" fame.

It was a child appropriate comedy…. In the 80s!

The pawn shop owner was played by Bo Diddly, one of the founding fathers of rock and roll and the creator of the Bo Diddly beat, the heartbeat of rock. This was Eddie Murphy's second movie, his first being 48 Hours. Both were box office hits. His next movie after Trading Places was Beverly Hills Cop which gave him his first solo starring role. That was a huge hit. Those first three movies solidified him as an A-list comedy actor.

"You're a DEAD MAN, Valentine!!!" "It...was...the...Dukes! It...was...the...Dukes!" Such a classic comedy for all times!!! 😂😂

The police officer who finds the PCP on Louis is played by Frank Oz, aka Yoda/Miss Piggy, and the director of such comedy classics as Little Shop of Horrors, and Bowfinger (also with Eddie Murphy). He also appears in the most famous Dan Aykroyd/John Landis collaboration, The Blues Brothers, as a very similar character.

The train sequence is worth it for “Merry New Year! Beef jerky time.”

This film is not only a fantastic comedy, but it also became a favourite for men of all ages, due to a certain incredible scene, featuring the gorgeous Jamie Lee Curtis!

Some fun facts: The woman hitting on Eddie Murphy in the fancy restaurant during dinner is Jamie Lee Curtis sister. Valentine and Winthorpe were originally supposed to be played by Richard Pryor and Geene Wilder Supposedly Don Ameche (Mortimer) hated swearing so much he initially refused to shoot the last wall-street trading floor scene but in the end agreed to do one take only, and apologizing profusely to everyone for it. An insider trading law was named after eddie murphy because of this movie. Before this movie Jamie Lee Curtis was only known as a "Scream Queen" in horror movies, it was also the first movie she showed off nudity in, which is a bit odd considering "Scream Queens" often lost pieces of clothing to reveal some skin while being chased by murderers and monsters.

The bidding for oranges at the end is still fresh in my memory. Most traders even today reference this movie. A cult classic, despite being a mainstream hit.

The two characters didn't set up the train with the party, that was a happy coincidence. Yes back in the 80's costume parties for new years was a thing. Dan's character had to dress up someway, he was too recognizable to just show up in a wig, hat or glasses. The only other choice was to not be there. As for beeks, all I have to say about him is HAHHAHAHAHAHJAJHAJAJAHJAAHAHAHAAA

Don Ameche (Mortimer Duke) was so against saying profanity especially the f-bomb, so when Randolph has his heart attack and Mortimer says “F… HIM”, Ameche agreed on the condition that he would only say it once and never again even if the camera didn’t get it right on take.

I am surprised reaction to Jaime Lee presenting her Curtis' was so short but George getting rebooted mid sentence was hilarious :D

The train sequence may have been runtime filler, but it's pretty hilarious.

The big Duke & Duke mansion at the beginning is still around, it's actually the Mill Neck Manor in Long Island. Its been used in quite a few movies and tv shows, most recently Homeland. Fun note, the extra name Buffy in the country club scene is Jamie Lee Curtis's sister.

Fun Fact: The cop who found the PCP in the bag during the strip search was played by Frank Oz (the voice of Yoda and voice and puppeteer of many muppets).

At a moment timed for maximum dramatic impact, Valentine and Winthorpe make their first move: "Sell [unintelligible] in April at 142!" They're selling short: selling contracts they don't yet hold. They are betting they will be able to buy the contracts later at a lower price so they come out making money but not holding any contracts at the end of trading. Now that there is another source of contracts available, the other agents buy from Valentine and Winthorpe as fast as the duo can write the orders. This has the effect of driving the price down somewhat, since there are now more sellers than there were before; by the time everybody pauses to hear the crop report, the price is back down to 102 cents per contract (interestingly, right where it was at the start of trading). The crop report is revealed and the price starts dropping as everyone tries to get rid of their contracts ("zero their positions") before the bottom drops out or trading ends. At a moment timed for maximum dramatic impact (about 46 cents per pound), Valentine and Winthorpe make their second move. They need to buy--a lot--to zero their position, and the crowd is more than willing to oblige. An important point here is that they don't buy any from the Dukes' agent; after all, they want him to be left holding the bag at the end of trading. When that time comes, the price is 29 cents per pound, and Valentine and Winthorpe have delivered on all their short-sold contracts. Now let's generate some brown numbers. It sounds like Winthorpe says "20,000," so let's go with that as the total number of contracts they moved. Let's assume they sold short at a constant rate from the time the price was 142 until the time the price was 102. From this, we can figure an average price per contract of 122 cents per pound. Likewise, let's assume they bought at a constant rate from the time the price was 46 cents per pound until the end (29 cents per pound), which yields an average price per contract of 38 cents per pound. Profits: (122 cents/pound - 38 cents/pound) * 15000 pounds/contract * 20000 contracts = $252,000,000.00.

Hey, don't come down on George for being stunned into silence by the Jamie Lee Curtis breastesses. That scene has got to be one of the top 10 most re-wound scenes in VHS videocassette history!

George's brain malfunctioning at 17:55 - PRICELESS!!! 🤣🤣

I have always found the ending of this movie to be supremely satisfying.

Jamie Lee Curtis in lederhosen makes the train scene worth it.

Oh my god the tooth glint and wink!🤣 haha and i lost it when you went to share a thought with us all George before Jamie lee curtis removed her shirt and you just trailed off and every comment about her after the thirst is real haha😂

I can get the guy not recognizing Jamie Lee Curtis, even though he hired her. I mean he hired her on the spot as a random hooker that he spotted. He didn't know her or know of her before that 10 second encounter.

Love when Jamie took her shirt off and George was speechless and the second time she disrobed Simone was speechless !!❤️❤️

The whole orange juice plot, and especially the stock exchange scene, was probably inspired by an actual attempt to corner a commodity that occurred a few years before the movie. In 1980, the Hunt brothers (which included Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt) attempted to corner the market on silver. Like the Dukes, they were unable to meet the margin call, and were left with a bill to the tune of over a billion dollars. It caused a brief stock market panic, and a bunch of banks had to band together to give them a loan big enough to pay their debts

The pawn shop clerk is Bo Diddley, famous guitar and blues singer.

I simply adore your reactions! ❤️ Jim Belushi (man originally in ape costume) and AL Franken (one of the men transporting the gorilla) were both cast mates of Eddie Murphy on SNL (Saturday Night Live). I believe that's one of the reasons for that train scene. 💜

The actor in the cell with Eddie Murphy that you kind of knew is named Giancarlo Esposito, he was in early Spike Lee movies at this point (Do the right thing, School Daze) he was the villain in season 1 of the Mandalorian

The train sequence was really hilarious back then. Also, Aykroyd and Murphy use to be on SNL. I feel the sequence was very similar to an SNL skit. Maybe they wanted Dan and Eddie to bring some of their Saturday night live stuff to the movie. Maybe? Another little fun fact. Just to let you know how excepted Black face was back then. There was a movie in 1986 called Soul Man with a white actor C. Thomas Howell that wore black face throughout most of the movie. True story.

Ya gotta understand that the SNL alum, like Dan Akroyd, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, especially Eddie Murphy (etc) in the early 80s made some of the funniest yet raunchiest movies back in the day. Then, the inevitable happened....they grew up and started making family oriented movies. Lol! Some examples were "The Jerk ", "Dr. Detroit " and anything with early Eddie. Great reactions, you two. Always da best!!

My mom was an extra in this movie! I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, and she was in a lot of local theater in the period. Anyway she heard about this movie and signed up to be an extra for the Christmas party scene, where Winthorp makes his grubby Santa suit appearance. It was apparently a good shoot, and she got a chance to meet the main actors, who were all pleasant to work with, which is nice to hear. Unlike their screen personas the two Duke brother actors were quite sweet in real life, although Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) was the more gregarious of the two behind the scenes. As others have said their were a number of fun cameos in this by actors who were or would be well known for other things later. The cop who finds the pcp was the puppeteer and voice of Yoda, Frank Oz. The older cop who tells Winthorp to "Take off your clothes!" Was Eddie Jones, who later played Jonathon Kent, Clark's father on "Lois and Clark" in the 90's. The pawn shop guy that Winthorp buys the gun from is played by famous musician Bo Diddley. You noticed it was a really young Giancarlo Esposito in the cell with Eddie Murphy early in the film, the prison cop who tells Eddie he made bail was played by James Eckhouse, who would later play the dad on "Beverly Hills 90210". The main drunken Baggage Handler on the train was played by Saturday Night Live staff writer and comedian AL Franken who later became a US Senator! The partying train passenger in the black monkey suit was played by famous SNL comedian John Belushi's brother, Jim. Coleman the butler was played by the wonderful Denholm Elliott who appeared in many great movies over the years including several British Hammer Horror movies and the Indiana Jones trilogy where he played Indy's associate "Marcus Brody", he also appeared in the wonderful "Noises Off" in 1992, which was a hilarious comedy that you should really add to your list!

The train sequence included some epic characters - a young Al Franken (in later years, Senator from Minnesota) as the baggage handler, and John Belushi's brother Jim as the guy in the gorilla suit. The pawn broker, if nobody has mentioned it yet, is blues legend Bo Didley.. And as others have mentioned, there were a number of other interesting actors throughout.

The guy in the jail against the bars y’all said was in “the Mandalorian” was also in “the boys” and of course “breaking bad” and a lot more, but those are his current top three noticeable characters

George's reaction to the glory that is Jamie Lee was pure gold :P

100K at last?!?! Congrats to you both, well earned and keep up the fantastic content! Definitely among my top viewed reactors on YT. Great reaction to this classic. It's amazing how this era of film did SUCH great a-hole characters, to this day it's hard to find recent movies that do it half as well. They're so well done that you can't help but like them in the end even though they're so freaking horrible

C’mooooon…how can you diss the train sequence? It’s provided the classic lines ‘Merry New Year!’ and ‘Beef Jerky time’.

This was the first Jamie Lee Curtis film I ever saw, and I must confess that my jaw dropped as badly as George's.

Going to suggest once again that you HAVE to watch "Bowfinger" with Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin. My favorite Eddie Murphy performance and a hilarious comedy about Hollywood and making movies. You would love it.

Congratulations on 100,000 subscribers Simone and Jorge! A great way to show that, is by sharing your reactions to this comedy classic, “Trading Places!”🎉🎊💸💵💰🤡🤣👍

This is probably my favorite “Christmas movie”….LOOK, if people consider Die Hard a Christmas movie, then dammit so is Trading Places 😊

7:53 Good eye! You're right, that's Giancarlo Esposito in his mid-twenties as "Cellmate #2." He worked steadily, but didn't start to become a familiar face until he was a recurring character in the 7th season of the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street at about 40 years old (1998-99). He continued to perform in many, many things, but most audiences today know him as drug distributor/kingpin Gus Fring in Breaking Bad (2009-11) or, as you just noted, as Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian (2019-present).

The hilarious stunned speechlessness at JLC's gifted divestment occurs at 17:54 . This pairs well with her hotel scene in "True Lies".

I realize the timing is probably off, somewhat but I wanted to offer you this laurel...and hearty handshake on your 100K subscribers! You deserve it! GRATS!!

The balding policeman that booked Winthrop was none other the Frank Oz, the voice of Yoda

Future Eddie Murphy to watch is Beverly Hills Cop or 48 Hrs. And for Dan Aykroyd if you haven't seen Blues Brothers that is a must.

Eddie Murphy's fourth-wall-break in this movie is the best ever!

"That's a lot of wood." Me: "That's what she said."

"I don't know how he didn't recognize her" Because it's Jamie Lee Curtis, he might not have been looking at her face...

Waiting for it on Italian tv like every Xmas . Jamie Lee Curtis said:”So Italians can see my boobs for Christmas?” 😂 PS: congrats for the 100k!

You should see Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche in the old days. They were heart throbs and made many movies. They were the Brad Pitt of their time. Don Ameche was an awesome singer too. Check out their old stuff.

You talked over one of the funniest moments in the movie when he's told his brother is having a heart attack and exclaims "Fuck him!" Sometimes you have to know when to shut up.

Frank Oz at 12:43: Puppeteer/voice of Yoda, Grover, Bert, Cookie Monster, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear, etc.

The head of the stock exchange (who seized the Dukes' holdings) was played by Alfred Drake. In the 1940s, he was the biggest male star on Broadway, playing the leads in the original productions of "Oklahoma!" and "Kiss Me, Kate."

People weren’t as sensitive to words back in the 80s.

Lol! I work in the "Duke and Duke" building, 123 South Broad Street, Center City, Philadelphia, right across the street from The Union Club and a block and a half down the street from City Hall. They've maintained the main room, which is formally called "The Duke and Duke Boardroom." Classic!

Spot the moment when George forgets what he was about to say... 😁

The butler in this movie was also in Indiana Jones . He also passed away of Aids . Also one of the 2 older brothers was in another movie called " Cocoon ".

The fumbling of the money clip was actually not scripted. They decided to leave it in.

The short animal handler is United States Senator Al Franken (ret)...back in his early days as a comic actor and SNL cast member.

Another Eddie Murphy movie worth a watch: 48 Hours

I used to work with someone named Luis, and every time he would butt into a conversation I would say "nobody wants to buy your drugs here, Louie!" I also love to find times to say "And she stepped on the ball!" or "Beef jerky time." :D

The train sequence is important because it's got Jim Belushi as the man dressed as a gorilla and Johnny from Airplane - he's the boss of the luggage handlers.

yay cg on 100k guys. been watching for a long time. love you both.

"That man looks familiar" Yeah, he was in star wars and mandalorian. He also used to won a cool fried chicken restaurant in Albuquerque, I don't know what's he doing now.

Weird curiosity: in Italy every Christmas Eve since 1997 this film is broadcasted on one of the most popular channels, and still gathers millions around the screen! I can't imagine a Christmas without it

You guys should check out Strange Brew...the most Canadian movie with the most Canadianness of Canadians being Canadian. So I think it's a matter of national pride that you watch it. Also...I'm Gonna Git You Sucka...the movie that introduced the world to the Wayans family. PS---the "pawn shop guy" is blues legend Bo Diddley.

The cop with the glasses processing Dan Aykroyd in the beginning is the voice of Yoda.

11:24 The late Paul Gleason, also Police Chief Robinson from another Christmas classic 'Die Hard'

Now you guys need to see the Bachelor Party starring Tom Hanks . It's another great 80's film!!

Here’s what gets me: Randolph and Mortimer connect this movie with Coming To America. The movies take place in the same universe. So in this universe, Price Akeem has an absolute doppelgänger in the US named Billy Ray Valentine. It would be really fun if they met each other in a later movie (I haven’t seen CTA2 so I’m assuming that didn’t happen in that movie). Fun to think about!

I'm pretty sure the train scene was borne out of two things: One of the writers' obsession over the gorilla rape joke, and Eddie Murphy wanting to see Dan Akroyd in blackface.

The guy in the jail scene is Giancarlo Esposito, Breaking Bad, Homicide, Do the Right Thing. The two Barry Whites got a great line "It ain't cool being no jive turkey so close to Thanksgiving."

The actor who played Mortimer Duke was a gentleman and was very uncomfortable using that language until Eddie Murphy told him it would be okay.

I think one of the reasons the train scene went on was because they seemed to set up this Beeks character to be this big bad guy (the mini boss next to the Dukes) so they probably wanted him being beaten to be a bit more than just knocking him down and stealing his briefcase. Which wouldn't work well either because he'd probably just call the Dukes and tell them the report was taken. So they needed some sort of sneaky scene similar to that. Maybe it could've been shorter and maybe they could've cut the gorilla part out but they knew we'd all want some sort of revenge and arresting him wouldn't be enough (which would again alert the Dukes). I loved this movie though and I loved the Dukes' cameo in Coming to America. I understand some people's objections to Louis' choice of costume on the train but things like that were a lot more acceptable (sadly) back then. Can't put today's standards on the past all too much. But it was a fun movie and showed just how horrible some people can be. Also still feels weird seeing them go to the World Trade Center at the end.

congrats on the 100k!!!! you guys totally deserve it!!!

Don Ameche who plays Mortimer Duke was also in the brilliant film Cocoon (1985), and its sequel Cocoon -The Return (1988), which you should add to your watchlist. The train sequence is hilarious, plus it was needed as a way to swap the genuine crop report with the fake one, and get Clarence Beeks out of the way. Did you notice that the actor who plays Clarence Beeks, also played the principal in The Breakfast Club (1985).

Giancarlo Esposito also plays Stan Edgar on series 'The Boys' ⭐️

Jamie lee curtis body was insane 🔥🔥

I LOVE that there's a future US senator in this movie - from my state, next town over!

"Look at all that wood" that's what she said.

The movie "Coming to America" is technically a sequel to this film. Plot is mostly unrelated but it happens in the same world and has a few characters in common.

PLEASE WATCH RAT RACE!!! SO SO FUNNY!! Old men put random people to a race for a million dollars left in a locker and a train station!! Amazing actors and seriously funny film!! Love you guys

That guy Beeks, whom you recognized as the Vice Principal in Breakfast Club, was also the lieutenant in Die Hard.

The "guy leaning against the bars" in jail was Gus Fring from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul

Your disdain for those characters using those words is intentional. The film is not condoning them, it's mocking those who would use them.

A few have pointed out that the cop was Frank Oz. The actor that played Wilson, the trader for the Dukes at the end, was also a Muppet performer. He was the original performer for Statler, Scooter, Janice, Sweetums and quite a few others.

Congratulations on the 100k! Well deserved!!

Congrats on 100K! Time for that tattoo George!

I was waiting and waiting for the Winthorpe blackface reveal and these two did not disappoint with their reaction.

I am glad you liked this movie overall. Can I suggest another Dan Aykroid movie that came out around the same time with a similar feel. It's called Doctor Detroit it's another little nugget that I am sure you would find funny.

The pawn shop guy is Bo Diddley, music legend. I don't know why, but that's him. "I walked 47 miles of barbed wire, got a cobra snake for a necktie, got a brand new house by the roadside, and it's made of rattlesnake hide, got a brand new chimney built on top, made out of human skull, c'mon take a little walk with me baby and tell me who do you love. Who do you love?"

Love this Classic! Watching these young people get uncomfortable and squirm over politically incorrect jokes was Awesome!