The Art of War *** (2000, Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, Donald Sutherland, Maury Chaykin) – Classic Movie Review 1076

Director Christian Duguay’s slick and impressively preposterous 2000 thriller stars Wesley Snipes as Neil Shaw, an undercover agent for the United Nations dirty tricks squad. Shaw is set up as the patsy after the Chinese ambassador to the US is shot dead at a dinner to toast a trade pact between the two nations.

Snipes brings his appealing and convincing action-man presence to the movie, but it doesn’t really help a lot when the movie’s written (by Wayne Beach and Simon Barry) and performed with so little real conviction.

However, it’s lifted just slightly by set designer Anne Pritchard’s decent, good-looking production, Pierre Gill’s flashy cinematography and bursts of reasonably exciting, if basic action.

Alas even the great Donald Sutherland looks bored, appearing in a now rare big star role. And poor Anne Archer is encouraged to overact dreadfully as Eleanor Hooks. Maury Chaykin, Michael Biehn, Marie Matiko and James Hong co-star.

Followed by The Art of War II: Betrayal (2008) with Snipes and The Art of War III: Retribution (2009) with Anthony ‘Treach’ Criss. This was filmed before The Art of War II, but shelved after Snipes showed willing to return to the series. The producers considered retitling this entry and releasing it as an unrelated film, but ended up releasing it as the third entry in the series after the Snipes sequel turned out to be a hit on DVD.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1076

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com