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THE ART OF WAR II: BETRAYAL

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/Thriller
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Athena Karkanis, Winston McDonald, Lochlyn Munro
Director: Josef Rusnak
Rating: NC-16 (Some Violence)
Year Made: 2008

 

 


 SPECIAL FEATURES

- Deleted Scenes
- Trailers

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English/Thai
Spanish/Portuguese/French
Subtitles: English/Spanish
Thai/Portuguese/Chinese/Korean/
French
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time: 1 hr 43 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: Origin Entertainment
Official Website:
www.sonypictures.com

 

 

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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This review is made possible with the kind support from Origin Entertainment

 



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