After watching "Kidnapping and Robbery", you can realize how excellent "Two Big Smoking Guns" is, the same base material, making the difference between hot pot and spicy hot, the reason is that the most obvious is that there is a high and low distinction in character shaping.
The success of character building is directly related to the focus of perception, especially when a bunch of foreign faces appear in a movie, and characters without feature tags will only make the multi-line narrative seem chaotic. In contrast, it can be seen that the characters of "Big Smoking Gun" are much more distinct than "Kidnapping and Robbery", and almost every character has its own different memory points, whether it is a stupid and cute thief or a curly black boss, or even a four-person squad with its own characteristics, so that the clear shaping avoids confusion during multi-line cross-narrative.
The second is the main perspective problem, the two protagonists of "Kidnapping and Robbery" are too weak, the middle once lost the main control position, "seemingly innocently stirring up a pool of muddy water" is the path mode that the protagonists of such movies should follow, but the two protagonists in this film are passive throughout the whole process, and the behavior of the two of them has not caused a large chain reaction, and it can even be said that no two protagonist stories are also established, and the only thing missing may be the pungent irony of the diamond inexplicably at the end. In contrast, in "Big Smoking Gun", the four-person team has a motive and a purpose, and the whole process is firmly occupying the position of the protagonist, almost every faction of forces is related, the misalignment of goals and behaviors brings a strong comedic effect, and the audience does not seem to have to watch the back and forget the previous plot.
In addition to the problem of character shaping, although both films take the style of black humor, "Big Smoking Gun" is obviously more exaggerated than "Kidnapping and Robbery", and the conflict between coincidence and drama is more extreme, although it is not so true in the texture of life, but the excitement is obviously better, after all, we watch this kind of movie, not to copy the apparent logic of life, but to metaphorically the deep characteristics of human nature.
Speaking of Gehrig, we have to mention Ning Hao, "Crazy Stone" praise countless, here is not much to say, just want to say a small controversy, some people think that "Stone" is a reference to the "Big Smoking Gun", some people say that it is "Kidnapping and Robbery", but I think it is both. The clarity of the bounty in "Stone" is the same as the diamond in "Stealing and Robbing", but the laying out of the clues avoids the confusion in "Stealing", and the advantages of "Big Smoking Gun" are distilled very clearly, and I still think that Ning Hao is the best director who knows how to localize.