The Art of War

The Art of War is a 2000 action thriller about Neil Shaw, a covert operative working for the United Nations Secretary General through his aide Eleanor Hooks. Shaw is assigned a routine surveillance job ahead of a summit meant to seal a trade agreement between the United States and China. When the Chinese ambassador is murdered, Shaw is framed for the killing, and the attack threatens to derail the deal entirely. Rather than clear his name through official channels, he escapes custody and goes underground, pursued by the FBI while trying to identify who is really behind the assassination. A United Nations interpreter, Julia Fang, becomes an ally as Shaw works to expose the conspiracy before it causes wider damage.

Christian Duguay directed the film, the sixth of the thirteen features listed in his filmography, following The Assignment in 1997 and preceding Extreme Ops in 2002. It was written by Wayne Beach and Simon Barry, with Nicolas Clermont and Ron Yuan producing. Wesley Snipes plays Shaw, and the cast includes Donald Sutherland as Douglas Thomas, Anne Archer as Eleanor Hooks, Maury Chaykin as Frank Capella, Liliana Głąbczyńska as Jenna Novak and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as David Chan.

The film opened on August 25, 2000. Made on a budget of about 40 million dollars, it took roughly 30 million dollars worldwide, meaning it did not recoup its production costs in cinemas. Viewers are divided on it: it holds a rating of 5.7 out of 10 on IMDb from 32,000 votes, and the same average of 5.7 out of 10 on TMDB from 577 votes, while a critics' rating of 4 out of 10 from 80 reviews puts professional assessment below the audience scores.