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Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
Talk about synchronous ideas: the same week that
psychologist Richard Hatch became ultimate "Survivor," "Art of War"
celebrates the concept of manipulation and control. It's all about
using strategy to understand your opponent and defeat him. The idea of
"Art of War" is based on an ancient handbook by Sun Tsu, a powerful
Asian general who believed that wars can be won without ever having to
actually fight. Many great generals, including Napoleon, used Sun
Tsu's philosophy, and its tenets are as applicable to business,
politics and winning TV game shows as they are to war. In the
international suspense thriller, Wesley Snipes plays a covert American
agent, a "fixer," who gets involved in the emerging trade relations
between China and the Western world as a group of murdered Chinese
refugees is found in a container in the New York harbor and the
Chinese U.N. Ambassador is assassinated in the midst of delivering a
speech. Because he was in the wrong place at the right time, Snipes is
accused and the only witness who can prove his innocence is a Chinese
translator (Marie Matiko). Meanwhile, Donald Sutherland is the
U.N. Secretary General, a Canadian, with Anne Archer as his
iron-fisted chief of security. Maury Chaykin is a senior FBI agent
with his own agenda, while Michael Biehn is Snipes' partner. And
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is a successful entrepreneur, an Eastern cowboy
straddling two cultures. Director Christian Duguay relishes the
gratuitous, realistic violence of Wayne Beach and Simon Davis Barry's
script, but it's Snipes' hip, cool charisma that ties the enigmatic
story together, On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Art of War" is
a slick, synchronous 7, the final summer popcorn picture. "It's the
game that makes us tick" - and Wesley Snipes is the winner here.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
