The Art of War II: Betrayal

There’s little doubt that The Art of War II: Betrayal primarily comes off as an in-name-only sequel to its 2000 predecessor, as the movie possesses precisely the sort of low-rent and entirely underwhelming atmosphere that one has come to expect from the straight-to-video action realm. The incredibly generic storyline, which follows Wesley Snipes’ Neil Shaw as he attempts to foil a plot to assassinate a senator, feels as though it could have emerged from any number of similarly-themed efforts, and the almost total lack of elements designed to evoke memories of the first film is nothing short of baffling (eg Shaw, last seen living in Europe with his girlfriend, now resides in an expansive North American home by himself). Josef Rusnak’s consistently inept directorial choices serve only to call attention to the movie’s exceedingly substandard production values, as the filmmaker has infused the proceedings with an oppressive selection of needlessly ostentatious visual tricks (eg choppy slow motion, shaky camerawork, etc). It consequently goes without saying that The Art of War II: Betrayal is rife with overblown and downright dull sequences, although, admittedly, there is one effective interlude involving Shaw’s surreptitious efforts at breaking into Homeland Security disguised as a rat catcher (this is in addition to the amusing scene in which Shaw temporarily disorients an assailant with the old flashlight-to-the-eyes trick). The end result is a film that certainly feels right at home within Snipes’ increasingly shoddy body of work, which is undoubtedly a shame given the strength of some his earlier efforts within the genre (eg Passenger 57, Demolition Man, etc).

* out of ****