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The Movie: While watching "Blade" a couple of years ago, I thought Wesley Snipes had found the perfect role; a great character, a very good screenplay, good director and in turn, Snipes' performance was excellent. Maybe he'd be moving on from routine action pictures. Or, well, maybe not. He's back with "The Art Of War", a political thriller that has a few minimally exciting moments, but the plot in general is a mess, something about a trade deal gone wrong with the UN, or at least that's what I thought. Warner Brothers did not screen the film for the press, which is usually a bad sign. While I didn't think the film was that much of a loss, it still is a very routine, sometimes overly talky action picture. Snipes plays government agent Neil Shaw, who is sent on various missions from his boss, Hooks (Anne Archer). He's involved in the latest UN mission when, while at a dinner, the ambassador to China is assassinated. He's falsely accused of the crime and is forced to go on the run to prove his innocence. The biggest problem (one of many) is traffic; people are going this way and that, their motivations are murky and the plot presents them all in a fashion that's confusing at best. The action sequences are decent, although the final scene takes more than a bit too much from a scene in "The Matrix", such as the special effect seen in the trailers. Aside from being confusing, the script's dialogue swims in thriller-cliches that are basically entertaining for about thirty minutes before they become tiring, as it becomes evident that they're all the film has to offer. The interesting thing though is that, well, as bad as it is, it at least looks and sounds great. Cinematography by Pierre Gill is sleek and watchable, and the film's audio (the film is presented in some theaters in Dolby Digital - EX) is a solid "action-movie" soundtrack. Snipes isn't bad in the role, but the movie gets fairly boring fairly quickly. Snipes is doing a sequel to "Blade" and hopefully, that will be a return to the kind of film and performance he's capable of. |