The Art of War

December 9, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 120 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

See if this sounds familiar. Wesley Snipes stars as a character who finds himself falsely accused and right in the middle of a major conspiracy, and he has to kick some tail to clear his name and get his life back. This could describe several of Snipes’ recent efforts, and it’s also the premise in The Art of War.

The Art of War

This time Wesley plays Shaw a covert agent for the U.N. of all things. Although he was just trying to catch the real bad guy he ends up as the primary suspect in a murder that could destablize world peace and economics. He finds himself pursued from many angles by several different groups while trying to figure out what’s going on and clear his name. Somewhere in Hollywood they must this huge file of canned plots, and this one was found filed under “conspiracy”. The plot is extremely predictable. If you do not see the ending of this film coming from a mile away, you aren’t watching enough movies.

But hey, did we REALLY go into this flick expecting a complex plot? Heck no! We went to see Wesley whip a little ass! The opening scene was great with lots of butt kicking, some really neat high tech gadgets and a couple of good stunts. Unfortunately that was the climax of the movie. There were some additional fight sequences, and they did blow things up and shoot alot of people, but nothing came close to that first sequence.

We were also teased to death by Marie Matiko. If you have a thing for Asian looking women, you’re going to really like her. We didn’t get to see much of her flesh. They even went so far as to work her getting naked into the plot, but they also went out of their way to make sure we didn’t get to see anything. What a tease! We were somewhat apeased with a strip club scene for our T&A fix.

The Art of War is exactly what you should expect. You’ll get some decent action tied together by a cheesy plot. If you like Wesley Snipes or just want some good mindless action, go see it, otherwise wait for video. I will say that this movie had some great visuals and audio effects thanks to the oriental themes that are going to make this a great DVD.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Anne Archer, Donald Sutherland, Marie Matiko, Michael Biehn, R, Theatrical, Wesley Snipes