Section B · Page 12
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, August 24, 2000
Snipes movie shows exciting, fast-paced ride
The Associated Press
Did you know that the United Nations maintains a covert operation that alms to manipulate politics in certain countries? Or that the United Nations can negotiate a trade agreement with China and the rest of the world?
No? Well, these and other whoppers can be learned in another slam-bang Wesley Snipes adventure called The Art of War.
Snipes plays Neil Shaw, an American whose undercover work for the United Nations is so super-secret that he lacks an identity. We find him first in China, where a tycoon is throwing a millennium celebration in a hotel that rivals anything in Las Vegas. Snipe is there to learn more about the tycoon's plans to disrupt a historic trade compact between China and the world.
The scene shifts to New York where Snipes reports to his supervisor, an ambitious FBI officer in charge of U.N. security, Anne Archer.
When the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations is assassinated as he speaks at a formal luncheon, the movie moves into high gear. Snipe goes on the lam, pursued by an overzealous FBI agent (Maury Chaykin), the N.Y.P.D. and assorted Chinese snipes. Snipes' only ally is a lovely U.N. translator, Marle Matiko.
Needless to say, the plot is more byzantine than a Mission: Impossible movie. Events and characters never turn out the way you expect.
Gun battles, explosions, car chases, running races ad infinitum. Also a lot of breaking glass. All of this punctuated by thunderous music and sometimes thunder itself.
The dialogue is replete with lines such as, "There is no free lunch; you have to pay the piper," and before an execution. "Whatever goes around, comes around."
Snipes is getting to be an old hand at these conspiracy/adventure yarns. He outdoes himself this time, leaping from tall buildings without a net (he does use a parachute on one occasion).
The Warner Bros. release, which lists four production and financing companies before the title, was produced by Nicolas Clermont. It is rated R for nudity, language and excessive violence and has a running time of 117 minutes.
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Tramps
2 Bangkok resident
3 Good at dodging questions
4 Muse of poetry
5 Rigorous
6 To shelter
7 Former Indian leader
8 Variable resistors
20 Bewildered
21 Band together
22 Scott hero
23 Masquerade costumes
28 Classified
29 Jazz style
30 Aluminum company
31 "Presumed innocent" writer
32 Flipper
35 Live on
38 Rotator
38 Silver or Elv
39 Scoundrel
39 Shermans and panzers
41 __ Park, CO
43 Dangles
44 Strive toward an end
45 As a group
48 Most pretentious
49 New Zealand Polynesian
50 Loaf
51 Setting apart
54 Yikes
54 Narrative
59 Language of Pakistan
60 Started the fire again
61 Bowl over
62 Bengal and Biscay, e.g.
63 Viscous
DOWN
1 Biddy
2 Smeltery pile
3 __ humbug
4 Greek-italian trail
5 Location of
© 2000 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
All rights reserved.
8/24/00
Vietnam
6 Strikes to strikeout
7 Chuckle
8 "We__the World"
9 Wedding vow
10 Herb for felines
11 French actor Delon
12 Arrive at
13 Affirmative responses
19 Japanese sportsmen
21 Tennis
23 Storm or Newton
24 Caspian feeder
25 Bowlshaped
26 Bruce and Laura
27 Hautboy
28 Sleeping berths
31 Slight trace
32 Musician Shaw
33 Active ones
34 Beginning
37 Kitchen utensils
Solutions
42 Der __ (German
news magazine)
43 Davidson
44 Nice crafts
45 Twangy
46 Smackers
48 Novelist Wilson
50 Raggeddy bill
52 Vat
53 Novelist Levin
56 Muhammad ___
56 Poorly it
57 Pigpen
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