5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Shaw is an operative for the United Nations' covert dirty-tricks squad, using espionage and quasi-ethical tactics to secure peace and cooperation. When a shipping container full of dead Vietnamese refugees turns up on the docks and China's ambassador is gunned down at a dinner celebrating a new trade agreement with 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.
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, Maury Chaykin, Marie Matiko, Cary-Hiroyuki TagawaThriller | 100% |
Action | 92% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
As action star Wesley Snipes resumes his career, beginning with last summer's The Expendables 3, Warner Bros. is reaching into its vaults for any of Snipes's former projects. Between the original Blade (1998) and the stylish Blade II (2002), the latter directed by Guillermo del Toro, Snipes made the far more generic action vehicle, The Art of War, which is most memorable for its title, taken from the ancient Chinese text attributed to Sun Tzu. The volume is supposed to have personal relevance to Snipes, who is an accomplished martial artist; his character in Passenger 57, John Cutter, is seen reading a copy. In the film, however, the reference is to a series of intrigues swirling around a proposed trade agreement following the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China. Just as an earlier (and superior) Snipes film, Rising Sun, was set in an era when Japan appeared poised to become the world's dominant power, The Art of War plays off millennial predictions that China would shortly take over the world's economy. The whole enterprise is set in a pre-9/11 world, and the twin towers of the World Trade Center appear repeatedly in the background of the New York locations (though most of the film was shot in Vancouver). Still, it's interesting to look back at this early example of what has since become a familiar collection of tropes: a lone agent operating with high-tech support to defuse an imminent threat whose cause becomes increasingly uncertain, as turncoats and traitors are revealed on all sides. The script by Wayne Beach (The Assignment ) and Simon David Berry (Continuum), from a story by Beach, doesn't operate this machinery with the kind of efficiency and elegance that the creators of 24 would later perfect, and director Christian Duguay (Screamers) doesn't know how to wring the thrills out of an action set piece. Snipes and the rest of the cast are the best thing about The Art of War. They elevate it just a degree or so above genre filler.
The Art of War was shot on film by Canadian cinematographer Pierre Gill (The Colony). Having been produced some years before the era of digital intermediates, the film was completed photochemically. I cannot say whether Warner has created a new transfer for its 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray or used a data harvest from its 2000 DVD, but I suspect the former, because the Blu-ray looks terrific. The image is stable, detailed and sharp, and the vividly saturated color palette used for scenes like the opening New Year's Eve party and the fateful diplomatic reception are rendered in all their glory. Many interiors are also highly stylized, e.g., a construction site through which Shaw chases a suspect, which looks better lit and more enticing than any such zone I can recall. The recreated U.N. offices are chillier and more hi-tech, but their hues are still more intense than real life. Gill and director Duguay are well aware that their film isn't set in a realistic world. The image is fine-grained, and some of the digitally rendered effects shots look a touch softer than the live action photography (a distinction that would vanish over the next few years with the advent of Dis), but there isn't any visible evidence of digital tampering. In a departure from its usual practice, Warner Home Video has placed this featureless catalog title on a BD-50, and, although the entire disc hasn't been utilized, the average bitrate is an uncharacteristically high 27.93 Mbps. The continuous action and rapid-fire editing must have convinced whoever was in charge that tighter compression was a risky prospect.
The Art of War features such an aggressively loud 5.1 surround mix, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, that listeners may want to turn down their usual volume setting by a notch or two. Gunfire, breaking glass (lots of it), vehicular impacts, the occasional explosion and other assorted sounds of mayhem occur throughout, and rain pours down almost as often as in Blade Runner, ensuring, if you'll forgive the term, an immersive experience. The score by Norman Corbeil, director Duguay's usual composer, is unusually bombastic, even by action film standards, with heavy reliance on deep bass and percussion that often blends with the sound effects.
Except for the film's trailer (1080i; 2.39:1; 2:30), the disc has no features. The 2000 DVD was similarly bare.
The Art of War is a well-produced Blu-ray but an underwhelming film. It isn't boring, but it doesn't leave much of an impression. Snipes' fans may want to add it to their collection, but his talents are used to much better advantage elsewhere. Buyer's choice.
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