"When I was growing up, if we wanted a Jacuzzi, we had to fart in the tub."

Call me Captain Cavegirl...

So Trading Places is not your traditional holiday lesson, and please don't confuse it for a decorating show where people cry and breakdown because someone ruined the fireplace when they were asked not to touch it. It's really a story that just coincidentally happens during the holidays.

This movie made me a fan of Dan Aykroyd. And yes, I like him better than Tom Hanks...deal with it. They were in Dragnet together if that makes any of you Tomfoolery Hanks-hooligans feel any better...and it sucked...but at least they didn't pretend that it didn't:) At any rate, Aykroyd plays Louis Winthorpe (and it's actually pronounced Lewis as in Emmanuel Lewis of Webster fame) a rich guy ready to marry a debutante and live the high life. His plans for champagne wishes and caviar dreams are thwarted by his bosses Randolph and Mortimer Duke. They make a bet that they can make a criminal out of a businessman, and vise versa. Billy Ray Valentine, played skillfully by Eddie Murphy is the counterpart of the experiment. What the brothers don't count on is Billy Ray and Louis "turning the tables" on them.

Reasons to see this movie: Aykroyd and Murphy are brilliant; Murphy does a scene where he talks of the jacuzzi he had as a kid (when they had to fart in the bathtub); Aykroyd basically turns into an indigent and has the best costumes ever seen in film (including a disheveled Santa who gets Christmas ham caught in his beard); the scenes on the train at the end with Aykroyd dressed as a rastafarian; Don Ameche dropping the f-bomb; and of course, some gorilla humor.

Merry New Year!!