Wesley Snipes and The Art Of War
Priyanka Bhattacharya
How familiar does this sound?
Undercover intelligence, the United Nations, political conflicts, ruthless terrorists and one man's race to save the world from impending disaster.
Already getting a sense of 'been there, done that'. Well, another addition to this special genre of action flicks is The Art Of War. Directed by Christian Duguay, the film is about a covert operations agent of the United Nations, Shaw [Wesley Snipes] and his one man fight against terrorism.
Shaw belongs to such an elite force of secret officers that he does not even officially exist.
The name of the film is borrowed from an ancient handbook by an Asian general Sun Tzu and strains of the book feature in the film too.
The story starts with China contemplating a return into the mainstream by entering into trade
relations with the West. But the Chinese ambassador mysteriously gets assassinated at the UN
assembly.
Apparently, someone is trying really hard to sabotage this entire process and does not want
China to sign the treaty.
In the midst of all this is our man Shaw who is framed as the assassin. He gets caught in a cat
and mouse game much above his league.
But because he is the hero, he manages to escape, get together with a pretty Chinese interpreter
and save the United Nations from its enemies -- single-handedly.
The film has some pretty intense moments like when Shaw discovers that all his friends/colleagues have been killed and he is alone. Or his final combat with the killer.
But in all, The Art Of War is mediocre. It gets quite gory and macabre at times. The plot is quite clichéd and drags on at times. Even the usp -- the action -- is not up to the mark.
The only saving grace is the acting, especially by Wesley Snipes. It is solely his film and he has
done an excellent job.
Watch this film only if you are a hardcore action buff. For others, it is a sore disappointment.
Credits:
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, Maury Chaykin, Marie Matiko, Michael Biehn, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Donald Sutherland, James Hong
Director: Christian Duguay
Producer: Nicolas Clermont
