The Art of War: Critic Reviews

The audio gambits are so commanding that at times, you forget that they're just about the only thing gripping your attention.

Ludicrous, impenetrable and headache-inducing: the newest Wesley Snipes film, The Art of War, is all that and more.

Somebody get this director Christian Duguay an A-budget so he'll shut up and go away.

Quickly falls into B-picture visual cliche, accompanied by leaden dialogue, as it simplifies its ambitious story for the sake of too many shootouts and overblown chases.

Duguay's grotesque excess of visual and aural noise squelches thought.

Christian Duguay has spent way too much time studying frenetic 60-second commercials and Hong Kong martial arts movies to remember how to make a lucid tale.

With charisma, acting ability and physical prowess to spare, Mr. Snipes is in a league of his own and makes a mediocre movie worth watching simply by stepping in front of the camera.

In this pretentiously titled international thriller, which is sloppily directed, Wesley Snipes plays an American agent who gets involved in the emerging relations between China and the Western world, with a shaky U.N. placed right in the middle.

Involves the audience with a hugely enjoyable central performance.

Sun Tzu said, 'Be subtle! Be subtle! And use your spies for every kind of business!' And 'ponder and deliberate before you make a move.' Alas, Sun Tzu didn't have script approval on this mess.

The Art of War keeps trying to distract us from the wispy inanity of what's going on by blowing something up every time we pause to reflect or wonder.

I'm happy to report that while it's deeply flawed, it's not by any means a bad film.

French Canadian director Christian Duguay does not display an original idea in the entire film, but he's a slick synthesist who melds various styles effectively and sustains a mood of deepening paranoia.

It should remain undercover.

Overly plotted and too coincidence-ridden for a story that's basically about nothing, this is a film that almost is not there.

...[features] several unexpectedly enthralling action sequences...

Sun Tzu believed that becoming predictable would lead to disaster. Apparently, the creators of The Art of War couldn't be bothered to take him to heart.

If Wesley Snipes were TWICE as cool as he thinks he is...this movie would still stink.

Wesley Snipes knows how to kick some ass but he really cannot pick a script.

..straining believability factor is Snipes escaping certain death every ten minutes. If you just can't be killed, or even mildly maimed, where's the suspense?

The title alone is a tip-off that the filmmakers feel they are making something much more grand that what actually appears on-screen.

The Art of War seems to be processed through some demented kaleidoscope, suggesting a film that might exist while the one that does is giving you a headache.

In the end, [the film is] a lost cause but the effort does not go unnoticed.

While Snipes remains convincing throughout the entire film, the film itself doesn't.

The crowd filing out of The Art of War -- silently and uneasily, as was the way they sat through the film -- seemed downright sullen. More than a few looked as if they had headaches.