Dan Aykroyd: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

4. Louis Winthorpe III - Trading Places (1983)

While there is some politicised thoughtfulness on class difference in The Great Outdoors, it's never as open or as blatant as the brilliant, barbed capitalist criticism of Trading Places. And while the film is memorably populated with pantomime villains and caricatures, and presided over by the colourful energy of Eddie Murphy, it is owned by a spell-binding performance of human decay by Aykroyd.

The film is basically a yuppy Christmas Carol - or at least it has that sort of capitalist nightmare at its heart - as we watch Aykroyd's Winthorpe be casually destroyed by his poisonous pay-masters on a bet. As he goes from Prince to Pauper, and initially loses the plot, it's great to watch Aykroyd shift from smug superiority (not in itself enough to make him a villain) to dead eyed nihilism and right through to heroic redemption.

Obviously, there are problematic moments (like him blacking up towards the climax), but this was a case of two SNL MVPs sparring successfully to create comedy lightning in a bottle that still endures today.