L'art de la guerre III: Le châtiment

To be honest, the first ART OF WAR film was bad enough, and the sequel worse. This final, clunking addition to the series loses the star (Wesley Snipes) and replaces him with the weak 'Treach', a rapper-turned-actor with all the presence of a lounge singer.

The narrative is set in Seoul, and sees our hero and his associates attempting to stop a gang of bombers from blowing up a peace summit at the U.N. What this means is that Treach and a couple of others hang out for a while in parks and hotel rooms and occasionally take part in some ill-devised action sequences which showcase both cast and crew at their absolute worst.

The pitiful action in this movie has to be seen to be believed; choreography doesn't get much worse than here. Even the C-grade likes of Gary Daniels movies have better fights than this. Director Gerry Lively also made the execrable DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: WRATH OF THE DRAGON GOD so it's no surprise that this effort here is so terrible. Watch out for the red lights flickering at the end of the toy guns they use in the shoot-outs.

Add in some clichéd supporting cast members, including the wannabe-funny British sidekick and the kind of Asian actors who've eked out a living playing racial stereotypes in Hollywood fare. Groan as Treach bashes some goons with some sub-par martial arts abilities and cry at the boring climax. Even B-movie fans will hate ART OF WAR II: RETRIBUTION. Even writing this brief review is spending too much time on it.

I have seen the original "The Art Of War", as well as the first sequel, and I found both of them to be passable exercises in entertainment. However, the third time is not the charm. The budget has been slashed, which probably explains why Wesley Snipes did not return. Anthony 'Treach' Criss is not a satisfactory replacement for Snipes. While he's not awful, he's awfully bland and lacking Snipes' charisma. But the reduced budget also gives the movie a cheap feeling. It is VERY obvious that the South Korean set story was not actually filmed in Korea (I should know - I lived in South Korea for a year.) The action sequences are sloppy and lacking excitement. As for the script, there's a real sense of deja-vu here, even if you can't immediately think of where you've seen these plot elements before. There is a twist near the end, though many viewers will be able to guess it before it occurs. If this is what the series has been reduced to, I really hope there is not a part four.

The title sound perfect but there where the things ends.The fact that the stunts seems to made up by some 5 year old coordinator and the dialog is so predictive and boring that you can see the final sequence of the movie. My god, what the director and the whole crew members where thinking when they ware shooting the sequence when the main actor shoots at the two Koreans from 2 meters and runs out of bullet after depleting the gun trows at them with the pistol and hit one in the face.Come on guys even a 3 year kid will not buy something like that. Is so pathetic that not worth watching until the end really. How hard is to make something good when the budget doesn't allow it.

Awful is the not the only word that comes to my mind after I watched The Art of War 3. Others like: sucks, terrible, shame, waste would be inspired by The Art Of War 3. The very last minute almost made me it was actually a parody, but it wasn't. Terrible lines including some overused ones such as the main character's reply: "it's not a matter of luck..." I have been in love with Sung Hi Lee for many years and followed her career as a model, she's simply stunning. In this movie she appears as an unpretty and poorly skilled actress. Not to mention the 2 male main characters. It is, again and too often, sad to see how money can be used in such a bad way and I still can't understand how the cinema industries works so this kind of project can actually benefits to someone. Gery Lively, Joe Halpin, go hide yourself!

Way to kill the character of Niel Shaw. The character in this disaster doesn't even come close to it. Glad I watch it on cable because if I paid for a movie ticket, I would have asked for my money back.