The Art of War

If you recall The Shadow Conspiracy or Murder at 1600 (the latter also written by Wayne Beach), then you know exactly what this Christopher Duguay film is all about. If not, well, The Art of War is another convoluted political thriller that's long on contrivance and short on suspense. Wesley Snipes plays a United Nations operative at the beck and call of the Secretary General (Donald Sutherland) and his attaché (Anne Archer) in performing covert operations designed to keep the peace. His latest assignment -- after a group of murdered Chinese refugees are found dead in a crate in the New York harbor -- is to lay a wire on China's UN ambassador. Should be a walk in the park, but shit happens when the ambassador is assassinated. Framed for the killing, Snipes spends the rest of the film dodging bullets and baddies while trying to find out who's behind the conspiracy.

Snipes gets in his dose of grunts and martial-arts kicks, but Sutherland and Archer suffer far worse thespian fates -- the film's liveliest performances come from Maury Chaykin as a bungling FBI agent and Marie Matiko as a beautiful Chinese interpreter thrown in with Snipes. The title, a reference to Asian general Sun Tsu's ancient handbook on military strategy, is the only artful touch. Other than that, this War is hell. At the Campus, Harbour Mall, Holiday, Hoyts Providence Place 16, Showcase, Tri-Boro, and Woonsocket cinemas.
-- Tom Meek