Rating: 
Summary: often confusing action film
Review: As a piece of storytelling, `The Art of War' often borders on the incoherent - but if you stick with it to the end, you will find that most of the narrative elements do eventually fall into place and sort themselves out nicely. It's getting there that's the problem. For long stretches of the film, we really have no idea who is doing what to whom and the sad truth is we often really don't care. The question then becomes: how far can a film try a viewer's patience and, even more to the point, how long can it expect him or her to stick it out waiting for the climactic revelation? In this case, at least, the overall quality of the film may not justify all the time expended on the effort.In theme, this is definitely not a film designed to appease right wing paranoiacs. Essentially, the film hails the United Nations as a force for world peace, while it simultaneously demonizes the anti-China trade crowd in no uncertain terms. Wesley Snipes plays a hot shot undercover agent working for the U.N. who suddenly finds himself unsure of who his real enemies are when a high Chinese government official is assassinated right on the eve of the signing of a big international trade treaty with that Communist country. However, it would be foolish for anyone to take this film any more seriously that its superficial action movie format warrants. For all its high-minded attempts at contemporary political relevance, `The Art of War' is generally a typical entry in the action film genre, emerging as basically little more than a series of elaborate but often quite preposterous stunt sequences loosely held together by an over-complicated plot. From a technical standpoint, these action set pieces are efficiently executed (particularly impressive is a foot race that takes place over rooftops, through alleys and along major thoroughfares of New York City in a pouring down rainstorm). Yet, the film seems needlessly violent at times and one questions the appropriateness of using a tragedy like the mass extermination of some Asian immigrants as window dressing for what is, essentially, a routine action thriller. And routine it ultimately is. There is very little in this film that commands any genuine audience interest. Without anyone for us to really care about, we lose the motivation to try and unravel the tangled narrative skeins that the filmmakers manage to dump in our laps. Thus, for all its pretensions to social significance, `The Art of War' (despite a very good closing shot, I might add) turns out to be just another traditional shoot-em-up, just another entry in a genre that seems for some reason to be a perennial favorite with the movie going crowd these days.
Rating:
Summary: YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS, SNIPES !
Review: At least for a while, I'm sure Snipes can make productions better than this. Otherwise, he will fall into Van Damme's categorie ... Wesley is a good action hero, who can convince dramatically too. So why he spents his times in lousy films as this one ? In this, he even was one of the executive producers. The film is not a total waste of time, has good premise, intriguing start, but all is lost in the middle, when it goes in slow motion and the cliches flow everywhere around the place ... Sutherland is here again, a new kind kind of Michael Caine ( be it, accepting whatever role people offer him - and still acting very fine ). Michael Biehn surprised me ( negatively ) as the steryotyped villain, I think he could do better than this. Anne Archer is totally unconvincing as the "bad girl" . The action scenes are average, no big deal, but doesn't harm the movie. The trouble is really the plot, very, very weak, going towards Seagal, Van Damme and Lundgreen... Cahnge your direction, Snipes, There's still time.
Rating:
Summary: So so action, and got nothing to do with Sun-Tzu
Review: A dissapointment from Wesley Snipes. There is enough confusion in the beginnig to make the movie interesting. But the movie soon ran out the steam. The action sequences are too far fetched, like jumping from 2 stories high without breaking his leg, and the final shoot out sequence make you go "yah, right". The movie only made reference to Sun-Tzu's book "Art of War" once the whole entire movie. I expected better performance from Wesley Snipes.
Rating:
Summary: Average Movie, Substandard Acting
Review: I wasn't expecting too much when I rented The Art of War, just some mindless action entertainment. In all reality there isn't enough action in this film. Wesley Snipes plays a role that he's played a thousand times before, renegade cop. The plot twists in this film are right out of the 1990's action screen writing handbook. One thing I will say in favor of this film is that the martial arts sequences were accurately portrayed. Good hand to hand combat sequences and no Matrix style garbage. The plot is actually not bad, involving the UN and a US/China free trade agreement but The Art of War is not worth the time. Wesley Snipes should actually starting reading the scripts he chooses to sign on for.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Snipes at his best
Review: All in all, not a terrible movie, but leaves a lot to be desired. Promising story but gets bogged down about midway through what needs to be a fast-paced action thriller. There are next to no DVD "goodies" to be had and that doesn't help this edition. For major Wesley Snipes fans only.
Rating: 
Summary: A good movie that demonstrates its own premise
Review: The reviews for this flick were so uniformly awful I nearly missed it entirely. Even after I bought the DVD on a whim, it sat on a shelf for weeks and I don't think I would have seen it at all except I came down with the flu and was looking for something to distract me. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be fast paced action film with a great cast and high production values. I'm not talking about a great film, but still very entertaining compared with most of the drivel from Hollywood. I could not understand all the bad reviews. Then a started to get a nasty suspicion which was confirmed when I read some of the Amazon reviews. Apparently this country has been so intimidated by the extreme right in this county that any piece of fiction that is critical of these wackos is rejected out of hand by the media. Shades of the repression of the 40s and 50s! I find it ironic that this movie demonstrates its own premise.
Rating:
Summary: Good plot and acting, but confusing presentation
Review: Most people can't differentiate between a bad film and a film they don't like. Many people didn't like this motion picture because of its liberal subtext. That doesn't make it a bad film. Most don't realize that this is a Canadian production, and that probably explains the political slant. However, as action films go, it is intelligent, high tech, stimulating, bordering on believable (seldom are action flicks actually believable), with plenty of violence. I didn't particularly agree with its "New World Order" message, but it is still a solid film. The main criticism I have of the film is the editing. In an attempt to make the story more intriguing, it is pasted together in a convoluted way that makes it very difficult to follow. All the factions and motivations are eventually explained, but one has to pay very close attention or see the movie a few times to catch them all. The screenplay suffers from an excess of subplots, which makes following the story that much more difficult. The biggest sin committed by the producers and director was that they did not understanding their audience. This film targets action lovers, who are a visceral lot. They want to be stimulated, not confused and intrigued. They also tend to be more conservative politically (God, Guns, Guts). So naturally, the film bombed. Wesley Snipes delivers a strong performance in the intelligent action hero role. Snipes seems to be locked in the action genre when he is really too bright for the roles he plays. He should take a lesson from Samuel L. Jackson and look for scripts that are more dramatic. Jackson still does action films (Shaft), but he picks parts portraying complex characters and scripts with strong character development, instead of straight macho testosterone parts. Snipes would have done well in some of the roles Jackson has had. Anne Archer does a fine job as the manipulative career diplomat, pulling everyone's strings behind the scenes. Donald Sutherland is a bit flaccid in this film, but his character really didn't have a lot of bite. Overall, this film is a strong entry into a genre dominated by mindless body count. I rated it an 8/10. Those who like their action flicks to be completely believable subtract two points. Subtract another two points for those who don't like confounding story lines. For those who abhor screen violence, don't even bother.
Rating:
Summary: At least it's better than Blade.
Review: After the horrendous Blade, Wesley Snipes goes with an espionage thriller in The Art of War, a film that's pretty weak and suffers from a lack of action and a good story. Snipes himself is decent, as is the rest of the cast, but when the action is this little, the film starts to get tedious after awhile. There are a few inspired touches, such as high-noon showdown at the end that is obviously reminiscent of The Matrix, complete with bullets moving in near slow motion. Aside from these sort of scenes, The Art of War features a lame story that goes nowhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad, really bad!
Review: Haven't they made this kind of "who done it" movie so many times? And the little chinese actress "what's her name" looks fine, but can't really act at all. How can a guy be 2 places at one time? Com'on, enough already. I can't describe how bad it is... Just a waste of time!
Rating:
Summary: Save your money.
Review: I was expecting another great Snipes' flick. What I got was a politically charged hate fest against republicans. OH, China is good. There's nothing wrong with China geting the U.S.'s nuclear secrets. All right-wingers must die. There is the plot.
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