The Art of War

Two summers ago, the massively entertaining "Blade," which starred Wesley Snipes as an invincible killing machine, both ended a skien of lackluster films featuring Snipes as a invincible killing machine and provided the perfect silly, explosive punctuation to an action-filled summer. Now we have "The Art of War," which as one might guess is not a documentary about Sun Tzu's writings but a movie featuring Snipes as (guess what?) an invincible killing machine. Conoisseurs of action cinema will undoubtedly leave the theater wishing for more art in the war, as the film suffers somewhat from its writing and direction; however, a bruising performance by Snipes, occasional brilliant directorial touches, and the film's gravitas and momentum make it a worthy capper to the season of big, dumb, fun filmmaking.

Some of "The Art of War"'s problems are typical of lazy approaches to the action genre. Of course, the entire plot is implausible; in an era when everyone seems to fear the United Nations's mythical black helicopters, it's hard to imagine the Secretary General tacitly supporting the UN special operations unit for which Snipes toils in this film. But who cares; this ain't an Eric Rohmer movie.

More importantly, "The Art of War" contains several unbelievable events even within its plot structure; for example, one of the UN special ops men does not seem to realize, in the final scene, that the doors to the UN building are made of bulletproof glass. You work there, dumbass! Also, Snipes directs Marie Mitiko to hack into the Department of Defense computer from the Web in a manner so completely stupid as to evoke guffaws even from complete computer illiterates. There is also the usual pointless (cinematically pointless, anyway) strip club scene, and the unnecessary brutality, and the lame fascination with high-tech gadgetry. These are flaws common to many action films, but the better ones (like "Blade") tend to find some way to overcome them.

Christian Duguay's direction, on the other hand, contains some uncommon flaws. For one thing, he seems absolutely convinced that he is making Great Cinema here, an unwise approach. The quest for gravitas leads him to set way too much of the action during rainstorms, and to overlay everything with punishingly dramatic music. He has also perversely attempted to banish humor completely from the present flick, giving Maury Chaykin's wisecracking FBI agent short shrift and refusing to milk humor opportunities. When put-upon Mitiko tells Snipes crossly that she's getting tired of the whole strong silent type, if the camera had just lingered on Snipes' grin for two more seconds, it would have been a priceless jest. Finally, Duguay proves an adequate guide through the labyrinthine mystery plot, but cannot seem to make some scenes fit naturally into the rhythm of the film, which means the fact that they prefigure something or other is painfully obvious. (By the way, "The Art of War" seems really xenophobic at first, but as more of the plot is revealed this impression disappears. Please don't leave early.)

Yet some things about Duguay's direction excite admiration. His use of flashback as Snipes analyzes a crime scene or a suspect's movements feels startlingly real and true. The moments in the film which actually do deserve gravitas get it in spades; the emotions of the actors feel earned, and the enormity of certain crimes falls hard on the audience. He uses color and setting quite effectively to create atmosphere, and shows his love of action-film motion by following the flights of individual bullets and giving us exhilarating car chases and karate fights. Duguay has been slated to direct "Terminator 3" if Cameron doesn't want to, and if he corrects a few things he could do awfully well at it. [Duguay was eventually dumped from this post in favor of "U-571"'s Johnathan Mostow and his All-Star Sound Editors, who did a solid, entertaining, wonderfully loud job.]

Back in this film, the burden falls on Snipes and Mitiko to provide that final necessary inducement to see the film. Both do well indeed. Mitiko, who is the closest thing to a love interest that Snipes has in the film, can actually act in addition to looking cute and speaking with a British accent. She questions and pushes Snipes even as she depends on him for safety, and generally exhibits a will of her own, a welcome rarity in action-movie females.

But Snipes, as always, is the big man, and he is as invincible and kills as many people in a machine-like way as you could possibly want. Even as he stands injured and hopelessly lost in the various conspiracies swirling around him, you feel certain that he will find the right evidence to steal, the right suspect to interrogate, the right ass to kick. No physical pain fazes him, no bonds can contain him, nothing will stop him from forcing good to triumph and taking his revenge against those who thought any different. Snipes' ability to impart this certainty that makes him not a great actor but a great action star, and ultimately makes "The Art of War" not great art but terrific war.

WHY IS PUBLICITY ALWAYS SO BAD?

As I normally do when I see a cute chick in an action film whom I know nothing about, I attempted to find out something more about Marie Matiko (age, experience, marital status — that sort of thing) after seeing "The Art of War." Their website contained the following topic sentence in describing Matiko's career:

Described as "a natural born performer with raw artistic abilities and infectious enthusiasm," actress Marie Matiko consistently demonstrates her outstanding talent and relentless energy.

Thanks for clearing that up, guys. (It's not as bad as "Into the Arms of Strangers"'s press kit, where at least half the sentences are meaningless. But with all due respect to the Kind, I don't think I'll be getting a crush on anyone in that film any time soon.)

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