The Art of Bore
"The Art of War" was not anything special but it was just about watchable, "The Art of War II" was not even that and just a case of watching for the action and the special effects. And then comes "The Art of War III: Retribution" which was actually filmed before "The Art of War II" but doesn't feature Wesley Snipes as Agent Neil Shaw but Anthony 'Treach' Criss instead. There is no other word for "The Art of War III" than terrible, the storyline is terrible, the action is terrible and whilst Treach isn't terrible he is no Wesley Snipes which is evident during the action. So to save yourself the time and boredom stop reading this review and forget you even heard of "The Art of War III" because it is not worth the time or money.
After getting his arse chewed off for taking out a target in a public place Agent Neil Shaw (Anthony 'Treach' Criss) is sent to Korea where intelligence suggests that North Korean terrorists are trying to buy a nuclear weapon to blow up a UN peace meeting. But not long after Shaw and his team have got their he is down to him, new partner Jason (Warren Derosa) and Sun Yi (Sung Hi Lee) the facilitator from the meeting who was totally unaware that she was involved in a nuclear weapon deal. With the police after them as well as the terrorists Shaw must use all his experience to get them out of the mess.
I've already said not to waste your time watching "The Art of War III" but I guess you are still reading so here goes. From a storyline point of view it is mindless rubbish, terrorists, nuclear bombs, UN peace meeting it is like some through darts at the playbook of action movies and took 3 cliches. What they do with those cliches is nothing new as surprise surprise Shaw are top agent left alone with the pretty Sun Yi yes that means a romp between the sheets, a pretty dull one at that.
Now that would put "The Art of War III" on par with "The Art of War II" except at least the first sequel had Wesley Snipes and action. This time around the action is boringly pedestrian and looks too staged, even clunky as it has no flow. And that is sadly down to Anthony Criss because he doesn't look natural when kicking butt. He also doesn't have the charisma of Snipes and takes to playing Agent Shaw in a permanent bad mood.
Aside from Treach there is also Warren Derosa as wet behind the ears partner Jason who frankly is so annoying you wonder why they chose to have such a fake character. And talk about fake characters the rest of Shaw's team are such a bungling group that you can't ignore how bad it is.
What this all boils down to is that "The Art of War III" is terrible and in the entire movie has just one entertaining scene which comes early on and involves a suicide bomber. Aside from that it has no redeeming qualities and is 88 minutes of life you won't get back.
