On the strength of trailers and a glowing review by an action-lover friend of mine, I rented this movie only to find that I was left with one question after watching: Why?

Once upon a time there was a tv series called The Fugitive. Then a marvelous action movie was made of it starring Harrison Ford as the fugitive and Tommy Lee Jones as the agent chasing him. Then, this spinoff seemed to merit a sequel and US Marshals was shot. So far, so good. USM was a fairly good, though unoriginal action flick, but it was a sequel to a tv spinoff.

Then why make Art of War? It’s USM all over again! After re-watching USM recently, I confused the two so much I expected scenes from AoW at every turn, and was disappointed and surprised when the surprise ending of AoW wasn’t at the end of USM. I am at a loss to explain what possessed the producers to make this movie at all.

Other than that, it’s an unoriginal but watchable action flick with a convoluted plot and fairly spectacular action sequences. Not guessing who the bad guy is in the first 15 minutes says more about your IQ than about the cleverness of the movie, and the finale is a stretch, but this is a movie that will entertain you if you’re into the genre.