The Art of War II: Betrayal (2008) (V)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Josef Rusnak

Writers:

Jason Bourque (writer)
Keith Shaw (writer)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

He's Back... And He Wants Revenge

Plot:

Agent Neil Shaw is called out of retirement and finds himself in the midst of a plot to assassinate several leading Senators with himself set-up to take the rap for a recent killing.

Plot Keywords:

Betrayal | Corruption | Murder | Violence | Part Of Trilogy

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Wesley Snipes	...	Neil Shaw
Athena Karkanis	...	Melina Cruz
Lochlyn Munro	...	Garret
Winston Rekert	...	Reverend Tim
Ryan Mcdonald	...	Alex
Rachel Hayward	...	Carlson
Scott Heindl	...	Graham
Michael Ryan	...	Senator Phillips
Olivia Cheng	...	Geena
Paul Bae	...	Stan
Clifford W. Stewart	...	Mom
Anna Mae Routledge	...	Tammy
Eric Brecker	...	Becker
Kenneth W. Yanko	...	General (as Kenneth Yanko)
Dean Redman	...	Team Leader

Also Known As:

L'art de la guerre II - Trahison (Canada: French title)
Operation Espionage (Canada: English title) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:103 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | UK:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:16 | South Korea:18 | Australia:M | Japan:G

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Hollywood Media Bridge

Trivia:

The "L900 Battle Rifle" is in fact the M-950/Liberty III Pistol from Calico Weapon System.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the opening credits a gun is fired in a closeup. The muzzle fire is visible, but the gun never cocks back.

Movie Connections:

References Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Waste of Money

Wesley Snipes would have been better off using the money to make this movie to pay his taxes.

The original Art of War was decent yet part 2 is absolutely horrendous. Its like watching a train wreck. Snipes tries to act which is never a good thing. His best movies are where he does very little acting and has very little dialog with a lot of action.

The Art of War: Betrayal, is a worse than the typical Snipes vehicle and is headed straight to DVD. Maybe Snipes can watch it in prison and learn from his mistakes. The film is obviously shot in Vancouver, BC (to escape US taxes) with a few scenes filmed in Washington State however the story is set entirely in LA.

The cinematography is decent (overly trendy and often too techy) however the plot, dialog, acting, directing and casting are all horrible.

There are so many ludicrous moments in this film its sad. One of the worst is at the beginning where Snipes' character is being paid as a subject matter expert on a Hollywood film. Snipes' character offers a line of critical advice on an action scene and then swaggers off scene while the entire crew looks at him in awe.

If you are looking for a highly implausible, totally unbelievable and predictable film with a lot of bad acting(aka your typical Snipes film) I would still recommend you look elsewhere for mindless entertainment.