Bah Humbug... What The Hell Is A Humbug, Anyway?

Christmas movies suck.  I said this in my first Halloween movie post and it's still true.  When you have a movie centered around one day of the year it's kind of hard to have it be relevant the other 364 days, right?  Only Halloween and Valentine's Day have movies from two preexisting genres and don't need films dedicated solely to them.

So is there any hope for movies with a Christmasy theme?  Sure, I guess.  For one, Jesus Movies, since Christmas was originally a holiday celebrating his birthday some two thousand odd years ago (it has since mutated into something almost unrecognizable from it's original intent).  But Biblical Epics can be watched year round so I guess they don't count as Christmas movies per se.

The other option is a film connected only vaguely with Christmas, say with the whole holiday season as nothing more than a setting and backdrop.  A film like the one I'm going to do a really tiny movie review on today.  Why tiny?  'Cause I'm full of turkey and cookies and feeling bombed out.  So brace yourself for a mini mini review of

This just might be my favorite holiday movie – even though it's not even that great of a flick – because it's not really a "holiday movie" at all.  It's really a comedy movie that just happens to take place around Christmas.  Oh, and we do get to see Dan Aykroyd in a sleazy Santa outfit but that's about it.  It's about two men – one rich, one poor – played by the aforementioned Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy who involuntarily switch social places due to a bet by two malevolent millionaires over nature vs nurture.

   
The setup is intriguing, the story is good and the comedy when it works is gold.  Eddie Murphy makes a great early impression with some great delivery ("Motherfucker? Moi?") and some great chemistry with Aykroyd who is also great here (I have always held that Dan Aykroyd was the greatest actor of the original SNL cast if not the greatest comedian, more on that below).  Jamie Lee Curtis and Denholm Elliot also make good turns in supporting roles and the villains are also played very ably by Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy.

The film succeeds in spite of, and not because of director John Landis, whose direction is merely competant but never compelling.  There are a few moments in the movie that I admit would be better with some better editing or pacing.  It's strange that Landis is famous for being a comedy director (in addition to, you know, being an irresponsible, homicidal fuckhead) when his movies are funny because of the efforts of other people, not him.  Animal House, his one true gift to cinema succeeds solely because of the manic energy and awesome performance of John Belushi (who was the pure funniest of the original SNL cast even if he was not as nuanced and agile a comedian as Aykroyd).  His other good (but not great) movies The Blues Brothers, Coming To America and this one succeed only because of the talents of the writers and the three performers already mentioned – Aykroyd, Belushi and Murphy.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this mini mini review.  Sleep beckons and it's been the end of an eventful day.  Don't let the preceding paragraph fool you... Trading Places is a pretty good, funny comedy flick and I recommend it highly.  I will try to post something next week for New Year's but I make no promises.


Nighty night.