Stars: Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, Maury Chaykin, Marie Matiko, Michael Biehn, Donald Sutherland, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Donald Sutherland

Director: Christian Duguay

Summary: When a container full of dead Vietnamese turns up on the docks and the ambassador for China is shot, Shaw, an operative for the United Nations, is set up for the murder...

THE ART OF WAR is a suspense-filled action thrill ride. Shaw (Wesley Snipes) is part of a top-secret team working for the United Nations, solving crises and helping maintain world peace. On a new mission involving security for a high-stakes trade pact between China and the United States, the Chinese ambassador is assassinated and Shaw is framed for the crime. Shaw must learn who framed him and why--in the process fighting off Chinese Triad gangsters, high-tech assassins, and the FBI. The only people who help Shaw are a beautiful Chinese translator (Marie Matiko) and a skeptical agent (Maury Chaykin). In addition to saving himself, Shaw has to race to keep the trade deal from collapsing and the United Nations from being humiliated and weakened. A tense techno-spy thriller, THE ART OF WAR boasts strong performances from Chaykin and Michael Biehn. Snipes gives a memorable portrayal as Shaw (half James Bond and half Shaft) with his own unique combination of martial arts expertise and secret agent charisma. Filmed largely in Montreal by Canadian director Christian Duguay (SCREAMERS, THE ASSIGNMENT), THE ART OF WAR is an exciting film with good fight sequences and a fast pace.

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Poorly received on its theatrical release, The Art of Waris a film which deserves a second look. Plot-wise it's a routinely complicated thriller full of double-crosses and sudden shifts of perspective, as Wesley Snipes, secret fixer for the UN, tries to find out who killed the Chinese Ambassador to stop a trade pact and what it is that interpreter Marie Matiko knows that means people are trying to kill her. There are good performances here--Donald Sutherland as a Secretary General who takes good care not to know what is done in the name of peace, Anne Archer as Snipes' power-dressed controller, and Maury Chaykin as a world-weary FBI man who finds himself dragged around New York in Snipes' high-speed wake--but what is memorable is the look of the film. Presenting a New York of building sites and mirrored apartment buildings and rain on glass in twilight, contemporary techno-noir has never been quite so coherently imagined and set.

On the DVD: This is a film which comes into its own in widescreen and on DVD simply because its visual aspect is most of the point. This disc is not generous with features, simply providing scene access and the theatrical trailer, which makes rather more reference to Sun Tzu's classic of military strategy than the film ever bothers to. However, its combination of Dolby Sound and 2.35:1 widescreen ratio plays to the movie's strengths. --Roz Kaveney

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Trailer
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2000
Release Date:	June 18, 2001
Runtime:	117 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 018871
Label:	Morgan Creek
Keywords:	Action, War, Art, General, Wide, Screen, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure