A handsome man (Alexander Skarsgård, starring in "True Blood") is comfortably drinking beer with his beautiful wife (Aisha Gonzalez, starring in the drama version of "Dead Dawn") at the door of his house, but he smells danger.
The sirens in their homes go off and a car is speeding towards them, which is clearly a bad deal for the reclusive secret spy couple.
The two quickly returned to the room, kissed affectionately, and then copied the guy, ready to meet the enemy.
But as soon as the man let out a cruel word, "Let them have no return", a bullet from a sniper rifle hit him in the cheek accurately.
Then bullets rained down on the house.
Women are not vegetarians either. Battle-hardened, she looked at her dead husband and quietly counted the other party's bullets.
And then in the space when the other party changed the magazine-
Sortie;
Fire;
fire suppression;
The opponent has no power to fight back.
In just a few seconds, the situation seemed to have been reversed, and the woman had regained the initiative.
Until—another bullet was fired from the direction of the jungle, and the woman fell to the ground.
10 minutes before the opening, the handsome man and beautiful version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the audience's hearts were wiped out.
Yes, this series is the legendary drama version of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and it has 8 full episodes on Amazon.
As the drama version of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's hit movie version that year, the only similarity between the show and the film version is the name.
The freshness of the series on Rotten Tomatoes has increased from 86% at the beginning to 90%, and the MTC overall score is 79, which is significantly better than the critics' reputation of the film version, but the audience Rotten Tomatoes popcorn index is only 62%.
Co-created by Francesca Sloane (Atlanta, Ice Storm) and black male lead Donald Glover, this spy action drama is obviously not a remake, but a re-creation, even a complete "subversion" of the original.
The question is, when a global blockbuster action blockbuster starring top handsome men and beautiful women is adapted into a darkly humorous marriage drama starring black and Japanese actors, why did the new Smiths kill the whole America?
01
In 2004, Hollywood's Doug Liman decided to make a husband and wife spy action movie, and initially found Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman, but Nicole Kidman rejected the script, and Brad Pitt originally planned to quit, but the rising star Angelina Jolie took over the script, and Pete decided to stay, and the rest of the story is known to everyone.
The humorous, thrilling, suspenseful and romantic action blockbuster was an instant hit, grossing $478 million worldwide and winning the MTV Award for Best Action.
The film is about a couple of married killers who don't know they work for a rival spy organization. After knowing the truth, the two fired at each other for a while, but finally joined hands to fight the enemy out of the encirclement.
In a sense, the opening paragraph of the drama version can be regarded as the hidden finale of the film version.
But the subsequent story development of the drama version completely subverted the setting of the film version.
First of all, the male and female protagonists of the drama version are not the bad ruffian but extremely handsome Pete and the sexy and charming Julie who makes people want to swear, and the appearance of Alexander Skarsgård and Aisha Gonzalez in the opening scene is comparable to that of the film version of the leading actors, but they were directly "killed" by the director.
The male and female protagonists of the new version are closer to ordinary people, in the words of the male protagonist and screenwriter, the bankruptcy version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Second, the male and female protagonists did not get married at the beginning, that is, they married first and then loved, not the real couple in the film version.
Third, the male and female protagonists are not top agents, but standard half-buckets of water.
They were all unable to find jobs to work for a mysterious intelligence company, whose head communicated only through mysterious text messages and the occasional gift of red wine.
They didn't do a good job at first, and they messed up the second job.
It seems that the reason for this arrangement is because Hollywood also knows that it will never find such a sexy combination of Pitt and Jolie to shoot such a sexy Smith couple, so it simply plays with a big ticket and changes the basic setting to such a point that even Doug Liman does not dare to recognize it.
Amazon has not yet announced the ratings, judging from word of mouth, critics like it very much, and the audience's response is average, and the actual average score of the drama IMDb is only 5.2.
Why?
02
The answer may be that not to mention the Chinese audience, even the American audience did not fully accept the drama version of the anti-heaven setting.
The male and female protagonists of the film version are not only world-famous in appearance, but also have very ungodly business ability, each of them can single-handedly enter the thief's nest and take the head of the general, hand-to-hand combat + weapon fighting + gunfight + drag racing All the warrior skills are full.
Wise as Iron Man, fierce as Thor.
It is no exaggeration to say that the film version combination is an invincible existence.
As soon as the drama version opens, the male and female protagonists are looking for jobs.
A human-computer interview, which directly introduces the character's personality setting, also shows the tip of the iceberg of the company's organization: after a simple personality test, male and female agents are paired and asked to form a fake couple to carry out the mission, that is, various "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".
So at the beginning of the story, the cold and scheming heroine Jane and the smart but low EQ male protagonist John were both embarrassed and full of mutual temptation when they first met, including but not limited to rummaging through each other's rooms, and the male protagonist also discovered that the female protagonist likes to watch movies with heavy tastes.
The first task of the two partners, who are not very good at the level of business + each has personality problems, is to get the package in the hands of an old lady and deliver the package to the destination.
The task is so simple that it is hard to believe that until a large section of the joyful courier is delivered to the mansion, the only drawback of this task is that the owner asks for 50% compensation because the package is somewhat damaged.
Until the two walked out of the mansion, the house behind them suddenly exploded,
The two were stunned first, and then reacted and ran away, which aroused the adrenaline of the audience.
This opening reveals a straight toughness, refreshingness, and a kind of black humor.
From here, the male and female protagonists began the mode of one episode and one task.
For example, the second task is to find a mysterious rich man at a secret auction and inject him with the mantra potion.
The mission was also quite smooth at the beginning, and the male protagonist pretended to be an auction waiter, and soon found a mysterious rich man who could afford to buy a collection for 100 million.
The heroine quickly resorted to a beauty trick, but the heroine was not Julie, and this trick obviously didn't work, until the heroine pressed a male protagonist again, buy one get one free.
But when the two of them were in the same room with the rich man, the rich man's perverted demands began: the two of them dressed up as dogs and kissed.
The mysterious rich man is indeed sick.
This scene of the male and female protagonists playing dogs is also the most exciting scene after the opening, and I have to say that the two leading actors are too exciting.
It was so wonderful that the rich man couldn't help but join, and the two of them saw the opportunity and quickly put the reagent into the rich man's body.
The problem is that the mission has long been reminded: beware of overdose.
The rich man who received the double dose really began to vomit the truth in a daze, not only telling his little secret in public, but also exposing another rich man's abuse of girls in the secret room of the island on the spot.
Seeing that the task was overfulfilled, the male and female protagonists hurriedly left with the rich man, wanting to rush home to inject the antidote, but before the rich man was injected, his braids were braided.
The corpse can only be disposed of in the bathtub.
After completing the work report, the other side was silent for a long time before typing a line: the task failed, and there were two more chances.
I have to say that the pace of the episode is fast enough, and at the end of the second episode, the fake couple becomes a real husband and wife, without any delay.
In the first episode, nine people were killed by delivering a cake, in the second episode, the perverted rich man was killed by mistake, and the first mission failed, in the third episode, the rich couple was rescued in the snowy mountain, which already had the flavor of a Bond movie, and in the fourth episode, another Smith was eliminated in the jungle.
But it is obvious that "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is actually not a traditional spy war drama, but a marriage drama.
The main focus of each episode is not the task itself, but how to make the relationship between the male and female protagonists go further. From "First Date" to "First Vacation", the series switches between romantic comedy and spy thriller, from the first kiss, igniting the fire of love, the rift in love, the female protagonist suspects the male protagonist, etc., each episode of the male and female protagonists seems to have gone through a stage of the marital relationship.
There is basically no love in the series, and the trickle is long.
All changes in love are made in the course of doing tasks.
To be honest, apart from love itself, the series is very much like the kind of Hollywood tough guy blockbusters starring Schwarzenegger and Stallone that were popular in the 80s and 90s.
There's not much nonsense, just dry.
And what they are facing is not a simple and common vendetta murder, but a dark organization with an unfathomable background.
Therefore, this drama is not just a simple action drama.
Rather, there is a sense of twists and turns, peaks and turns.
From the beginning, it feels foggy.
In the process of doing tasks with surging undercurrents and dangers, the male and female protagonists peel off the cocoons all the way and solve the mystery.
It wasn't until the finale that the audience discovered the tip of the iceberg of the truth: what kind of existence is the company?
Is the opening Mr. and Mrs. Smith the ending of the male and female protagonists?
Countless questions were put in front of the audience, but the most urgent thing in front of me was to find the truth of the finale: after a confrontation in the finale, there was only one bullet in the heroine's gun, but three shots rang out on the screen.
Did the male and female protagonists escape?
03
Has the reputation of the drama version surpassed that of the film version?
From the perspective of film critics, not only catching up, but also throwing the movie version out of several streets.
But judging from the audience's word-of-mouth, the drama version is at most tied with the film version.
But compared with a large number of Hollywood classic adaptations that have completely hit the streets, the drama version should be said to have achieved good success.
In my opinion, there are three reasons:
First, the appearance of the male and female protagonists in the drama version is not as good as that of the film version, but they have their own characteristics.
In the film version, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie perfectly interpret what it means to be the perfect agent for a fairy couple.
But precisely because they are so perfect, perfectly unlike ordinary agents.
And the male protagonist of the drama version wrote, directed and acted in the word-of-mouth drama "Atlanta", I couldn't imagine that he could play an agent, but after exercising his big chest muscles, he was like it.
The heroine who has played Star Wars is not a beauty at first sight, but her acting skills are good, and she is especially good at using details to shape characters.
The new version of the male protagonist is not a traditional Hollywood-style hero with courage and a quick mind.
But full of wisdom, good at adaptation, and also shows a delicate heart in many places, natural respect for women, and a hint of laziness and cold humor in the politeness to the heroine at the beginning.
The heroine looks mediocre, but her personality is mainly a fierce and sassy, and she will do it without saying a word.
The skills and brains are not inferior to the male protagonist.
And both have a special sense of humor, and the jokes they tell are funny.
It's pleasing to the eye, in fact, this pair is also very good, and the sense of cp is not weaker than the movie version.
Second, the action scenes are limited, but the sense of suspense is better than the film version.
The drama version actually worked the action scenes, and there were a lot of action scenes and gunfights interspersed in the play.
Every time, there is a hard bridge and a hard horse to fight, and there is no shortage of car chases, battles, and blasting scenes.
But the scale of the action scenes is limited.
More emphasis is placed on the creation of psychology and even a certain degree of thriller.
In particular, the organization of the company is still full of mystery in the end.
Even the ending leaves suspense, like BE but OE, the opening and ending are like a loop.
It seems that whether it is a foreshadowing to shoot a sequel or a collective offline for men and women depends on the ratings.
Third, the spy war marriage apocalypse is very exciting.
Compared to spy comedies, the core of the series is always a marriage story and a relationship between the sexes.
It tells the story of two strange men and women who are attracted to each other, fall in love, deceive, be honest, reconcile, and finally live and die together.
It's not just a handsome man and a beautiful woman who fights and kills.
Although the series is only eight episodes, and there are not many tasks, all stages and situations in the marriage are put into it, and there are very daily details of the couple's life: who brushes the pot after eating, naming the cat, whether to fart in front of the partner, etc., and even the part of marriage counseling for couples.
So whether the series is good or not depends largely on how the audience expects the show.
Viewers who want to watch exciting fight scenes and spy stories will surely get more and more boring the more they watch it.
If you like the male protagonist's old work "Atlanta", you will find it very interesting, very good-looking, and have the flavor of Atlanta.
As for political correctness, skin color issues, and the appearance of actors, it also depends on the audience's acceptance.
For me, the biggest difference between the drama version of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and Disney's "The Little Mermaid", and Netflix's black heroine version of "Cleopatra" is that the latter is not light without the actor's complexion, and it is still a bad movie no matter how you look at it.
The drama version of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" has completed a very bold adaptation, and the standard is not bad, no one stipulates what skin color to play Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and it is not accepted to watch the audience themselves.
It can be said that from the perspective of creation itself, this play does not deliberately cater to any kind of current trend.
This makes it look a little old-school and traditional at first glance.
is like the classic American drama model from 20 years ago, not publicity, not gimmicks, but showing a steady texture.
Don't think that the show has received high marks from film critics because of political correctness, there have been more Hollywood works with low scores in recent years that are overly politically correct.
Film critics liked it because the male lead and screenwriter was really bold enough, and North American audiences didn't like it so much because they were too bold.
But the most important thing in Hollywood today is to fry cold rice and follow routines.
The film version of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is already a top match in terms of stars and appearance, and if it is filmed in comparison, it is likely to be Dong Shi Xiaofeng. So the main creator blew off the handsome men and beauties at the beginning.
Obviously, there shouldn't be only one kind of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and as for whether or not the Mr. and Mrs. Smith can get into your eyes, the answer may be the same as a marriage: you will know until you try.