August 26, 2000 -- Actor Wesley Snipes is no stranger to action movies, having starred in "Passenger 57" and "Blade," a couple of pretty good action flicks. Snipes can Kung Fu with the best of them. His latest effort, however, "The Art of War," fails to rise above the average. It's no fault of Snipes and the other actors, they are just fine, it's just that the plot isn't that interesting.

The story involves a labyrinthine conspiracy to derail a trade agreement between the U.S. and Red China. Would it be so bad if the trade agreement was derailed? How many of you want to compete with slave wages? According to the film, the trade agreement is a good thing and it would serve to make China less isolationist.

Snipes plays the role of Shaw, a secret operative for the U.N. He witnesses the assassination of the Chinese ambassador, but ends up being framed for the murder. He escapes from the authorities and tries to prove his innocence, and at the same time tries save the trade agreement. He also enlists the aid of a pretty young Chinese interpreter named Julia (played by Marie Matiko of "Mystery Men" and "The Corrupter"). This, of course, is standard action movie plot material. The wronged man seeks justice and vengeance. In the last reel he confronts his tormentors.

While the mystery of just who is behind this conspiracy is almost ridiculously complex (Oliver Stone is a producer of this film, so it figures), the riddle isn't really unravelled in such as way as to make it interesting. The material is familiar enough and the characters are faceless enough that you don't really care who it is. You just sit back and wait. All will be revealed. This kind of complacency could have been avoided with just a little character development here and there, but character development in this movie is almost non-existent.

One of the better thin-sketched characters is FBI Agent Cappella (Maury Chaykin of "Mystery, Alaska"). With very little credible evidence, Cappella seems to have all the answers and he takes all setbacks with good humor. Chaykin is fun to watch. Snipes and Matiko make a pretty good pair, but we never learn much about either one of them. Snipes does pretty well with the fight scenes, but they aren't particularly well-staged or filmed. Veteran Actress Anne Archer's ("Rules of Engagement") talent is pretty much wasted on the role of U.N. poobah Eleanor Hooks and Donald Sutherland could phone in his minimal role as U.N. Secretary-General Douglas Thomas, so he could concentrate on his much juicier role in "Space Cowboys." Mysterious secret agent Bly (Michael Biehn of "The Rock") is another paper-thin character, wasting the talents of yet another good actor. Chan, played by the very familiar and capable Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, is yet another example of what could have been an interesting character given a little more screen time.

Granted, Hollywood isn't real strong on character-driven stories, especially in action films, but you have to have at least a little bit of interest in the characters in order to get the audience to follow the plot. This film has almost no characters worth caring about. At the point in the film where you might start getting interested in a character, the character gets killed. And some of these executions are nasty and cruel. This film rates a C-.

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