Bullet Points: The Art of War
Does Wesley Snipes get the credit he deserves for his contributions to the action genre?
Over the course of his career, Snipes has done a wide variety of action movies… He’s been the straight up action hero in movies like Passenger 57 and Drop Zone… He’s been the comic book action hero in the Blade series of films… and Snipes was super-villain Simon Phoenix in Demolition Man.
Snipes even had a chance to flex his espionage muscle in 2000’s The Art of War…
- Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 1999: The movie opens on a lavish, rooftop Y2K/New Year’s Eve party being held by Chinese tycoon, David Chan (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Showdown in Little Tokyo). Among those in attendance at this party is UN covert agent Neil Shaw (Wesley Snipes, Demolition Man). Shaw is there to “convince” a high ranking official from North Korea to return to the bargaining table with his counterparts from South Korea. Shaw delivers the message, but soon finds himself engaging in some hand to hand combat with security, then to escape he parachutes off the top of the building, but that doesn’t prevent him from taking a bullet to the shoulder. The opening sequence really laid the groundwork for the film… we are introduced to some of the movie’s key characters… David Chan, Neil Shaw and Shaw’s support team, Robert Bly (Michael Biehn, Navy SEALS) and Jenna Novak (Liliana Komorowska, Extreme Ops)… we get a feel for the type of action that we can expect for the rest of the film and as a bonus we get to see some cool spy gadgets.
- 6 Months Later: Neil Shaw is still recuperating his shoulder when he is called back into action by his boss Eleanor Hooks (Anne Archer, Patriot Games). David Chan is in New York and he is throwing a party for China’s Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador Wu (James Hong, Big Trouble in Little China). Eleanor assures Shaw that this mission will be “a walk in the park” compared to the last one. It is a simple eavesdropping mission, as Eleanor has a hunch that Ambassador Wu may be tied to to the Triads and that he is looking to squash a potential trade deal that would open up China to the rest of the world, which would be a huge feather in the cap of the United Nations.
- No Walk in the Park: Instead of eavesdropping, Shaw finds himself chasing after a mysterious man in a black hoodie that assassinated Ambassador Wu moments after Wu’s planned speech to the party goers began. A frenetic foot chase follows and it ends after Shaw loses the mystery man, doubles back and finds himself surrounded by the NYPD and the FBI. The Special Agent in charge of the murder investigation is Frank Capella (Maury Chaykin, Wild Thing). I would like to go on record by saying that Frank Capella was the most likable character I have ever seen Maury Chaykin play even though Capella disregarded Ambassador Wu’s interpreter, Julia Fang, when she told him that she knew Neil Shaw was not the assassin.
- Bump in the Road: Capella rides shotgun as murder suspect Neil Shaw is being transported to a maximum security facility. But there’s a bump in the road in the form of a Triad trap. A bomb planted by the Triad in a horse drawn carriage causes the transport van to flip, the Triad open fire on the FBI agents and drag a lifeless Neil Shaw out of the van and into the back of their getaway car. The Triad was not there to save Shaw however… they are there to make him disappear off the face of the Earth. But the Triad soldiers soon find out Shaw was playing a bit of possum and this leads to one of the best action sequences in the entire film with a shackled Shaw escaping the car, with the unwitting help of a coke snorting truck driver.
- Defanged: Shaw soon crosses paths with Julia Fang and things start to play out as you might expect… there’s push back from Julia at first, she eventually realizes she needs to trust Shaw if she wants to stay alive and together they believe they have unraveled the mystery of who ordered the hit on Ambassador Wu… David Chan. Now you may be thinking having a character played Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the main villain in the movie is a bit predictable… you’ll be happy to know that when Shaw goes to confront David Chan the mysterious man in the hoodie shows up again and kills David Chan! So if it wasn’t David Chan… then who was it?!?!
The Art of War did a lot of things really well. The action pieces were on point. The cast was strong. There was an effort to make the story and the characters involved layered. And at nearly two hours in length, the pacing was impeccable.
There’s an art to presenting Bonus Bullet Points as you’ll soon find out with these The Art of War Bonus Bullet Points…
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Wesley Snipes drive a car through a diner, then The Art of War is the movie for you.
- Familiar Face: Donald Sutherland (who starred in the remakes of both The Italian Job and The Mechanic) plays the Secretary General of the United Nations.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Wesley Snipes and Michael Biehn go one-on-one on the basketball court, then The Art of War is the movie for you.
- Reprisal: Wesley Snipes would reprise the role of Neil Shaw for 2008’s direct to video The Art of War II: Betrayal… Anthony “Treach” Criss of Naughty by Nature fame would take over as Neil Shaw in 2009’s The Art of War III: Retribution.
