El Arte De Matar

In this tale of betrayal and conspiracy, secret agent Neil Shaw (Wesley Snipes) finds himself framed for the murder of the UN Chinese Ambassador. What follows soon after is a palate of action sequences that are easy to the eyes and references to real-world politics, though sometimes far-fetched.

The story is okay, but it could have been so much more. They should have focused more on the crumbling relationship between the US and China as shown in the film, with a lot of truth mixed in. But alas, they had to add in some predictably cheesy plot twists to make it more "audience friendly". The action sequences, although well filmed, looks lost in this film. And there are some obvious plot holes here.

Actors are average. Snipes gives his usual action-hero persona we've seen in "Murder at 1600". Marie Matiko is gorgeous with her sultry eyes and accent, and gives a good performance, making her not just eye candy. Donald Sutherland, although brief, gives the best performance in the film as the Secretary of Defense, but I think he needed more screen time. Anne Archer is also quite good in her role, as Shaw's head Hooks.

Direction wise, Christian Duguay did the job. His direction is gripping. The music by Normand Corbeil suits the atmosphere of the film, and is not cheesy or overblown. The editing is fast.

In short, it could have been an intelligent thriller, but it opted for the easy way out, filled with clichés, plot holes and a lot of action. The latter I can live with but the former two needs some corrections. Still, it's not bad. Not bad at all.

Entertainment: 7

Overall: 6

In "The Art of War", Snipes plays a UN deep-cover operative whose cover is compromised. Though the film features plenty of stunts, chases, crashes, shootouts, fights, and pyrotechnics mixed with a typically convoluted spy-type plot, we've seen better of all in other films. The flick does have a female protagonist but there's little romance or sexiness in this flick which lacks the spit and polish of Bond films and seems to be begging for something more than just a lot of busy heroics and magical futuristic microelectronic snoop stuff. Ok but far from Snipes better films.

First off the technical aspects of this movie were superior in every sense. The sound, the editing, the camera work, all of it was fantastic and made this an enjoyable treat.

You have to enjoy all that because, with the exception of Donald Sutherland who is always on, the acting isn't there. Wesley Snipes is one of my favorite actions heroes, but we all know that action heroes can't act. Well, maybe Bruce Willis is the exception. But for an action hero, Wesley is great and does a great job here - for an action hero.

And, hey, Marie Matiko was easy on the eyes.

If you liked Enemy of the State, you will like this movie.

The Art of War, a somewhat pretentiously slick and stylish thriller is a nice action film from the first year of the new millennium. Grafting current events onto that old stand-by plot device, the accused innocent man, and adding lots of gratuitously arty cinematography, Duguay has come up with a film that manages to be diverting - provided, of course, you don't think too deeply about the plot. When the film works, it's because of the tight pacing and expertly choreographed action scenes. The "surprise" twists in the plot are nothing of the sort - anyone who doesn't expect the return from the dead of one character and the betrayal by another hasn't seen many of these movies. This is a good Wesley Snipes film, rather forgotten.

Disclaimer first: This is not Citizen Kane, obviously. But THE ART OF WAR is about as fun as an action movie can get.

Yes, Snipes is a runaway agent wrongly accused, we have seen this in US Marshals and Murder at 1600 (by the same Writer.). But this movie has two things that those movies lacked, STYLE and an enjoyable supporting cast. ART, with all its chase scenes and fight sequences (and there are a truck load), is beautifully shot.

The sets and camera work are great, and most importantly (partially because I live there) you buy that you are in NYC. Few signs of the Canadian stand in, Montreal. Everything is slick and well shot.

Behind Snipes are a great cast of action cronies, Maury Chaykin as Capella the FBI agent who doesn't know whether to arrest or help Snipes, Marie Matiko, Julia the VERY attractive hostage/eyecandy (Hollywood should learn from the TASTEFUL handling of her strip scene) and a bunch of good character actors who could be of course our villain(s).

Yes, ART OF WAR has too many twists, it tries hard, too hard at times. But it is better than the other action flops that have stopped trying all together.

Bottom line this is The Fugitive meets James Bond (with a little Jackie Chan). Its a fast paced, slick, action flick, that has half a brain in it. Snipes is awesome in it and should look to move forward from roles like this. Ignore the cynical critics who are obviously trying to suck the fun out of action movies and see it.