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SYNOPSIS:
When Agent Neil Shaw comes out of hiding to avenge his former
mentor's murder, he winds up on the trail of betrayal and
lethal corruption. Under the charge of his friend and Senatorial
candidate, his mission is to set things straight. But when
more people turn up dead, Shaw realises that he's been framed.
Now he's letting the fists fly where they may to get to the
bottom of an assassination conspiracy that everyone thinks
he's behind. It's time to turn up the political heat and enjoy
the action of the martial arts master!
MOVIE
REVIEW
Anyone here heard of "The Art of War"?
Not that Sun Tzu’s military strategist book but a 2000
production starring Wesley Snipes. Never mind if you don’t
as my memory of it is as hazy as yours.
While
the first has Snipes’ character as an operative agent
being framed for a murder he didn’t commit at least
it still pass of as mindless entertainment as far as I can
recall, "The Art of War II: Betrayal" is purely
another déjà vu, forgettable straight-to-video
(STD) effort.
Snipes
plays Neil Shaw who comes out of hiding to avenge his mentor
who is mysteriously killed. For a person who is supposedly
in hiding, it’s hard to digest the fact that he lives
in a fancy, lakeview apartment and drives a Porsche. I suppose
half of the budget of this STD production went to the rental
of the apartment and car as the rest of the movie seem to
be shot on a shoe-string budget with hopeless editing and
clumsy action choreography.
Snipes
has proven he is quite an agile fighter in the "Blade"
trilogy given a decent and capable fight coordinator. But
here, he’s moves like he’s suffering from severe
convulsion and his 'chop-suey' moves are less than impressive,
more towards embarrassing perhaps. It’s so badly conceived
that they had a fist- fight sequence that took place in a
darkened room, with silhouettes bouncing all around during
the half-way mark. This is not arthouse Wong Kar Wai right?
I
have yet delved into the plot and you know what? It’s
equally as absurd as the action. It’s one of the most
repelling piece ever assembled as it involves nothing but
superficially written corrupted senators and arms-maker. For
the finale, the producers decide to turn Snipes turns into
some kind of a Superman who successfully manages to dodge
a weapon that supposedly costs $12 million to produce and
walk out of a building unscathed.
Making
the characters mouth some Sun Tzu’s sayings aren’t
going to leave us deeply impressed either. In fact everything
is so laughable and ridiculous that going through Snipes’
tax evasion case in real-life is far more exciting and rewarding.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
The deleted scenes are just alternative versions
of the various fight sequences, equally as bad as the final
cut. You got to see it to believe. The DVD is round up with
various trailers including "Zombie Strippers", "Felon",
"The Contractor" and many others.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Presented
in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the transfer is generally
passable except for a few poorly-lit scenes which were mentioned
in the movie review. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound transfer
is decent overall, since the material is not particularly
overwhelming anyway.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
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