The Art of War (film)

Last updated
The Art of War
Art of war poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Christian Duguay
Screenplay by
Story byWayne Beach
Produced by Nicolas Clermont
Starring
Cinematography Pierre Gill
Edited by Michel Arcand
Music by Normand Corbeil
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • August 25, 2000 (2000-08-25)(United States)
Running time
117 minutes [1]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40-60 million [3] [4]
Box office$40.4 million [4]

The Art of War is a 2000 action spy film directed by Christian Duguay and starring Wesley Snipes, Michael Biehn, Anne Archer and Donald Sutherland. It is the first installment in The Art of War film series, and was followed by two direct-to-video sequels, The Art of War II: Betrayal and The Art of War III: Retribution . The latter did not feature Snipes.

Contents

Plot

Neil Shaw is an operative for the United Nations' covert dirty-tricks squad, using espionage and quasi-ethical tactics to ensure peace and cooperation. When a shipping container full of dead Vietnamese refugees turns up on the New York docks and China's ambassador is gunned down at a dinner celebrating a new trade agreement between China and the US, Shaw is framed for the murder and must evade the FBI and Triad gangsters to find out what is really going on.

Cast

Jet Li was originally cast for the part but was eventually played by Wesley Snipes. [5]

Reception

Box office

The film opened at #2 behind Bring It On , earning $10,410,993 in its opening weekend in the United States. [6] The Art of War went on to gross $40.4 million worldwide, against its production budget of $40–60 million budget. [4] [3]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on reviews from 81 critics, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's consensus says: "Excessively noisy and overly reliant on genre clichés, The Art of War wastes its star's charisma on a ridiculous, convoluted plot and poorly edited action sequences". [7] On Metacritic, it has a score of 30 out of 100 based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [8] Audiences surveyed by Cinemascore gave it a grade B. [9] Emanuel Levy of Variety wrote: "Despite some effectively rousing set pieces, particularly in the long corridors of the U.N. building, The Art of War is ultimately much less than the sum of its parts". [10] Stephen Holden of The New York Times called it "ludicrous, impenetrable and headache-inducing". [11]

Sequels

Wesley Snipes reprised his role as Neil Shaw in a straight-to-DVD sequel released in August 2008. Athena Karkanis and Lochlyn Munro also star in the film.

The third and final film in the series stars Anthony "Treach" Criss, Sung-Hi Lee, Warren Derosa and David Basila.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Art of War (2000)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  2. 1 2 "The Art of War (2000)". British Film Institute . Archived from the original on April 15, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "The Art of War (2000) - Financial Information". The Numbers . Retrieved 2024-06-18.
  4. 1 2 3 "The Art of War". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 2014-08-14.
  5. ↑ Carver, Benedict (1999-02-25). "Pics slated in Samaha-Stone deal". Variety . Retrieved 2014-08-14.
  6. ↑ "Cheerleader Satire 'Bring It On' Debuts In Top Spot At Weekend Box Office". Tyler Morning Telegraph. August 28, 2000. p. 13. Archived from the original on November 1, 2022. Retrieved November 1, 2022– via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  7. ↑ "The Art of War (2000)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 2024-06-14.
  8. ↑ "The Art of War". Metacritic . Retrieved 2024-06-14.
  9. ↑ "ART OF WAR, THE (2000) B". CinemaScore . Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  10. ↑ Levy, Emmanuel (2000-08-21). "Review: 'The Art of War'". Variety . Retrieved 2014-08-14.
  11. ↑ Holden, Stephen (2000-08-25). "The Art of War (2000)". The New York Times . Retrieved 2014-08-14.
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