Trading Places 7.4/10. The site's consensus states: "Featuring deft interplay between Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, "Trading Places" is an immensely appealing social satire." Metacritic gave the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 9 critics, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Author and critic Richard Schickel of "Time" magazine called "Trading Places" "one of the most emotionally satisfying and morally gratifying comedies of recent times". While admitting Aykroyd's success in demonstrating "perfect prissiness as Winthorpe", Schickel commented on Murphy's performance as Valentine calling Murphy "a force to be reckoned with" and stating that he "makes "Trading Places" something more
Trading Places further commented on the cast by favorably commenting on acting as "engaging", stating that "Murphy and Aykroyd are perfect foils for each other", that they're both capable of being "specifically eccentric", that "they both play characters with a lot of native intelligence" and concluding that "It's fun to watch them thinking." Commenting on Bellamy and Ameche in the roles of the Duke brothers, Ebert called their involvement in the film "a masterstroke of casting." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" repeated some of Roger Ebert's sentiments stating that "Preston Sturges might have made a movie like "Trading Places" -