The Art Of War (DVD 2001)

Wesley snipes is enjoying himself. Your reveiwer was suprised to see that such a promising actor in the days of his early hits (jungle fever, new jack city)was probably more comfortable with the action hero tag than straight acting. He's definately done himself out of an oscar. But hey he's happy and why not? Because as an action hero, he's one of the best. Not only an accomplished Martial arts expert but a fine actor too, with enough emotional range to hang with the best of them. That's why he makes this movie.The plot is a clever one and I guess, was probably more complex in it's original form (a book I guess) than the film actually is. The hi tech spy thing has been done a million times over but I don't think that even Mission Impossble or Mr Bond himself have ever been this clever. The action is heavy, snipes looks good, his little chinese sidekick is fine, though I wish she actually had more attitude than the movie initially suggests. All in all a good movie. Why oh why it didn't recieve any major hype in british cinemas I'll never know, but for a stylish, well photographed polictical/spy/action thriler you can't go wrong. My only gripe is that the chinese are given a rough deal and the sentiment almost borders on racism. But credit to snipes wherever this movies fails, snipes comes to the rescue.