Customer Reviews

Art of War, the

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I don't care what anybody says!...In my opinion, as far as American action-movies with martial-arts are concerned, "The Art of War" is flat out THE BEST! Forget Van Damme, forget Seagal, Snipes fights well & he's a legitimate, competent actor to boot!

This is an espionage, spy thriller with Snipes as a U.N. security agent. The plot centers around a conspiracy to thwart American-Chinese trade negotiations. There are double & triple crosses galore & this film has the feel of an updated film-noir classic, MTV style.

If you like well-made martial-arts films as much as I do, "The Art of War" is for you!

I really liked this movie. I saw the other reviews and was surpised by them.

I bought the movie really on the back of films like Blade, Passenger 57 and US Marshals. Its a good action film, one that holds your interest and is watchable again and again.

Not sure I take my films as seriously as some others...I didn't see this as some American or UN jingoistic offering, I just saw Wesley beat the bad guys! ...and it was fun!

If you like films like Mission Impossible, Chain Reaction, Three Kings, The Fugitive, etc... then I think you'll find this enjoyable.

I saw The Art of War about 1 year ago ,and I was very
disheartened by what I saw .The U.N. has always been
an enemy of freedom .It is a bastion of totalitarianism
and socialism .The U.N. was founded by one-worlders
,such as Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White ,who were both
exposed as Soviet Agents .One of the U.N.'s Secretary
Generals ,Kurt Waldheim ,was a World War II Nazi .The
Art of War portrays the U.N. in a positive light ,and
that is why I gave this move one star .

I've seen some bad movies. Some horrible movies in fact, but nothing, absolutely nothing, as bad as this. This is the result if you take bad editing, stolen scenes, and no plot and throw money at it.

From the beginning where Neil Shaw (Wesley Snipes) gets in a fight at a major event and the event "never happened" to the public to the scene where a sniper kills a major diplomat at a major U.N. event. Does no one have security details in these things?

His intuition of bombs in backpacks and the events that happened in the translators apartment are also quite unbelievable. If he's that talented shouldn't he be working for Ms. Cleo instead of risking his butt?

The ending to this movie is a direct rip off of "The Matrix", unfortunately neither of the characters are superheroes so it comes off as ridiculous.

Don't Waste your Money. And someone please convince Wesley Snipes not to waste his time or talent.

An Undercover Operative (Wesley Snipes) works for the United Nations. When he has accept a Mission to Protect the Chinese Ambassador (James Hong) but he has been framed for Murder of the Ambassador from the Agency, he`s working for. Now he`s on the run against time to find the person, who framed him. The only person, he could trust is from the help of a Spy (Marie Matiko).

Directed by Christopher Duguay (Screamers) made a familiar but effciently action-thriller and it`s also well acted. This film has Plot Holes, here and there but the Supporting Cast including:Donald Sutherland, Maury Chaykin, Micheal Biehn, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Anne Archer helps. This film will please the Viewer looking for High-Octane Escapism. DVD`s has an strong anamoprhic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an fine Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Super 35. Grade:B.

The Art of War is an enjoyable film, but I recommend to fully appreciate it, you should watch it twice before judging it. The film is more enjoyable after youunderstand the plot. Super performances from Wesley Snipes and Michael Biehn, with a great supporting cast including Donald Sutherland and Anne Archer. WATCH THIS MOVIE!

The Art of War is a stylish action film that trys too hard to follow the trend and style of recent blockbusters. The actions are mostly reminisant of John Woo films (such as Hard Boiled, Face Off, or Mission Impossible 2). For the most part, they are fairly good if un-inspired. The climax however is simply atrocious. It's an utter (...) of the last gun-fight in the Matrix with both men dodging bullets right and left. Aside from being a rather tired (...), it simply doesn't work. The characters don't posses any supernatural powers and so it's really hard to buy that they are dodging bullets.

Another problem is the films awful plot. For some reason, the Wesley Snipes character seems to have ESP. In one scene, he comes into a room where his partner had been beaten and murdered. Then, just by looking at the room, he sees everything replay in his head. In another scene, the character sees some guy coming out of a resturant. He notices that the asian guys is carrying a back-pack. He then drives through the resurant, grabs the back-pack, and throws it out the window where upon it explodes. Talk about police intuition (or maybe all asian guys carry bombs). As before, this wouldn't be a problem if the character actually had ESP but it's just kind of dumb here.

Maury Chaykin is the only redeeming thing this movie has to offer, hence the two stars. Maury Chaykin played Nero Wolfe in A&E's adaptation of Rex Stout's THE GOLDEN SPIDERS. He was astonishingly good as the neurotic Wolfe, and made a tepid story-line a fascinating watch.

In the abysmal ART OF WAR, Maury Chaykin hilariously plays a droll FBI agent, and relays the surreality of this farce of a movie by having a great time in his character. He alone is the only reason to watch this movie; his is a class act performance in relation to the rest of the poorly conceived and executed movie.

THE ART OF WAR pretentiously tries to adopt some of Sun Tzu's maxims, but coming at the end of a goofy flick, one is more embarrassed by their employ than anything else. Although this movie is really about watching Wesley Snipes wander around vandalizing things and beating people up, they could at least have attempted to gin up a less shabby premise.

Anyone who reads a newspaper will be totally bemused by the sorry devices parsed out as intellegient geopolitics. First of all, the United Nations does not negotiate trade treaties, does not have anything to do with the North and South Korean negotiations, and certainly does not mediate bilateral trade agreements between China and the United States. Second of all, the UN is a factionalized, marginally coherent entity that can barely keep its own paperwork in order, let alone conduct supersecret covert operations with a bunch of silly sassy spies. It'd take everyone about two seconds to find out about it, and the UN Security Council members would promptly jail any UN Secretary General that tried anything that stupid. This movie presents a total misunderstanding of what the UN does and how it is organized. Thirdly, any prominent Chinese businessman that can buy and sell hotels on a whim would hardly jeopardize his position with a bunch of small-patatoes sweat-shops and smuggling operations. Fourthly, any diabolically "clever" conspiracy would hardly be based on the ham-handed right-wing politics that are demonized in this movie. There is also a total misunderstanding of elite policy perspectives in the US. The attempt to frame this movie as politically adept because it so blatantly advocates UN supremacy certainly does can't get around the fact that the political subtext is presented so atrociously.

All of this makes the formulaic plot, underwhelming action scenes, and embarrassingly banal premise the ingredients of a movie that should never, ever have been made. It's no wonder that this movie has elicited nothing from the world but a collective yawn.

Art of War is not a great film, but it sure is entertaining: to a point. Its actions scenes, though not as violent as you want them to be, are heavily reminiscent of John Woo-type action.
Though Snipes has done better, he seems to be having a good time playing a UN spy. All in all, the movie is OK right up until the end fight scene where Snipes and his old rival fight it out using the stunning technique of Bullet-Time utilized in the Matrix.

Wesley Snipes at one time was a great actor whose talents can
both be used in comedy & action films but it seems as of late
Snipes is choosing the wrong roles to further extend on his
acting abilties. ART OF WAR a film about U.N Operative who is
running from his crooked employers as well as the police when
he is accused of killing the chinesse ambassador. The film's
action scenes afre remiscent of James Bond films as well John Woo's style of direction but it fails on any original storyline.
It's been done before but only better. Wesley Snipes Can do
Much better than this.