I'll start with an opinion that may not be widely shared: Dan Aykroyd gives a funnier and more well-rounded performance than Eddie Murphy. His Louis Winthorpe III has a much more interesting arc that you can see bubbling below the surface of this tightly wound character from the start. He feels just outside of his group of awful, cheeseball, cocksucker "friends", they're better looking than him, more athletic, and so on, and the character of Todd clearly (sharp-looking playboy) has designs on Louis' fiancee. He needs the Dukes to make that bet, not to simply teach him a lesson, but to get him out of a life that'll probably turn to shit in a few years. He's going to get married to the wrong woman who will likely be banging one of his "buddies" behind his back in the not-too-distant future, and his continued "support" from and future among that group feels tenuous at best.
When everything gets started I love how every potentially dark moment for Louis walks right into a laugh, attempted suicide has rarely been funnier. Also, Aykroyd in blackface with a terrible Jamaican accent is great, it's really silly and kind of a bald laugh, but it kills me everytime.
Murphy is very good, and I would say it's more the writing than him, but aside from learning that he has the aptitude to succeed in this world in an honest and straight-forward manner, he never gets the 180 that Louis does, but I suppose that's because Louis has the largest personality flaws and is the guy most in denial about his position.
Jamie Lee Curtis is great in a cliched role. She's always radiated an enormous amount of intelligence, so much so that she makes the thinnest roles credible (it's why there's never been a better Scream Queen, she makes non-characters work). Her strength and presence as a performer is also what makes the more exploitive aspects of her character work as well. I think I appreciate the sexuality of her performance more now as an adult than I did as a thirteen-year-old kid whacking myself dry over it, certainly more than when I was six or seven and didn't know quite what to do, but knew that I liked what I saw.
Denholm Elliott, Paul Gleason, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, all those guys have fabulous, winning moments, even miniscule, one-and-done characters like the Duke's black limo driver and sardonic butler are fucking hilarious.
Maybe it's because I haven't seen Animal House in a very long time, or maybe it's a generational thing, or a taste thing, but I prefer Trading Places over it, I really do.
When everything gets started I love how every potentially dark moment for Louis walks right into a laugh, attempted suicide has rarely been funnier. Also, Aykroyd in blackface with a terrible Jamaican accent is great, it's really silly and kind of a bald laugh, but it kills me everytime.
Murphy is very good, and I would say it's more the writing than him, but aside from learning that he has the aptitude to succeed in this world in an honest and straight-forward manner, he never gets the 180 that Louis does, but I suppose that's because Louis has the largest personality flaws and is the guy most in denial about his position.
Jamie Lee Curtis is great in a cliched role. She's always radiated an enormous amount of intelligence, so much so that she makes the thinnest roles credible (it's why there's never been a better Scream Queen, she makes non-characters work). Her strength and presence as a performer is also what makes the more exploitive aspects of her character work as well. I think I appreciate the sexuality of her performance more now as an adult than I did as a thirteen-year-old kid whacking myself dry over it, certainly more than when I was six or seven and didn't know quite what to do, but knew that I liked what I saw.
Denholm Elliott, Paul Gleason, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, all those guys have fabulous, winning moments, even miniscule, one-and-done characters like the Duke's black limo driver and sardonic butler are fucking hilarious.
Maybe it's because I haven't seen Animal House in a very long time, or maybe it's a generational thing, or a taste thing, but I prefer Trading Places over it, I really do.
