The Art of War II: The Treason

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Movie
German title The Art of War II: The Treason
Original title The Art of War II: Betrayal
Country of production Canada
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Josef Rusnak
script Jason Bourque
Keith Shaw
production Dan Lyon
Kirk Shaw
music Peter Allen
camera Neil Cervin
cut Trevor Mirosh
occupation

The Art of War II: Betrayal (original title: The Art of War II: Betrayal ) is a Action - Thriller by Josef Rusnak from 2008. It is the second part of The Art of War was published in 2000, and the With The Art of War III: The Retribution 2009 a sequel followed.

action

Shaw was a United Nations undercover agent who retired from active duty. He is now working under the name Nigel Stone as a military advisor on a film set , where he advises Garret, an actor he knows. His martial arts teacher and mentor, who was called "Mother" by everyone and a supporter of Sunzi and whose work The Art of War was, was killed in a robbery. Shaw drives to the funeral service and meets Melina Cruz, who introduces herself to him as the daughter of the deceased.

Garret tells Shaw that he wants to switch to politics, but that he is blackmailed with secretly taken photos. Shaw witnesses how Garret is attacked with a knife by a hit man on his yacht and is able to protect Garret from the attacker. The killer loses his cell phone in a scuffle with Shaw. The cell phone contains information that an attack is being planned on Senator Carlson. This had recently voted several times against the military bills of Congressman Phillips, which is why she is convinced that he is behind the attack plans against her. She shares this with Shaw in confidence, but is bugged by Homeland Security agents .

Senator Phillips is having a dinner party that night, and Senator Carlson is also present. An assassin gains access to the building and shoots Phillips in his study. A short time later, Shaw enters the study and discovers the dead Phillips on the floor. Shaw breaks into the Senator's computer and discovers information that Phillips has received large amounts of money from an arms company. When Shaw is about to leave the property, a security agent discovers the body, and a scuffle ensues between Shaw and security. Shaw eventually escapes.

Homeland Security believes Shaw was responsible for the Senator's death and therefore authorizes Shaw's liquidation. Melina Cruz calls Shaw and tells him that she is being followed. Shaw then makes his way to Melina. He is expected by two killers, against whom he can assert himself - not least because Melina shoots one of the attackers. Shaw suspects that Melina was not the target of the killer, but himself. During research, Shaw finds that not only his bank account and credit cards have been blocked, but that over 150 bogus phone calls between Shaw and Senator Carlson have been registered with the telephone company. Apparently, Shaw was the victim of an intrigue aimed at killing Senator Phillips and accusing Shaw of being Senator Carlson's henchman.

His friend, computer expert Alex Hahn, manages to prove the connection between the manipulated calls and homeland security in Los Angeles . Shaw then smuggles rats into the homeland security building to gain access to the building camouflaged as an exterminator . In the communications center, he disarms Graham and the rest of the crowd and forces them to copy all of the information they have gathered about Phillips, Carlson and himself to a USB stick . At this moment he has to watch on the monitors of the communication center how Alex Hahn and his friends are killed when they access Hahn's apartment. Shaw escapes with the USB stick and hands this Senator over to Carlson.

Shaw makes it look like he took Senator Carlson to a remote shipyard. Homeland Security then has its agents deploy to the shipyard. Team leader Becker gives the order to kill the senator. When the agents discover that the Senator is absent, they decide to at least kill Shaw. This fails, and Shaw sends Melina home with Reverend Tim.

Meanwhile, the senator is intercepted in the underground car park by the arms contractor Marc Sallas, who kills her because she did not support a bill that would be beneficial for his business. Shaw visits this entrepreneur at his company headquarters and kills him after explaining to Shaw about the connection between Garret and the gun lobby.

Shaw finds Garret at a golf estate where he is preparing a press conference for his entry into the Senate . The politician is confronted by Shaw with the accusation of having used him for his own purposes and to have killed his mentor "Mother". Melina Cruz then reveals herself under the name Susan Marson as an agent operating undercover for Garret who admits the murder of "Mother". Shaw kills the woman and leaves his gun on the balustrade of the balcony. Garret picks up the gun, points it at Shaw and pulls the trigger, but there is no more cartridge in the barrel. However, since Garret was seen through the pane of glass with the gun in hand by the guests present, suspicion of the woman's death now falls on him.

Shaw leaves the property. The news reports that several senators allegedly received millions of dollars in bribes from Sallas have resigned and Garret has been arrested as a suspect in the Marson murder.

background

Originally, the already completed sequel to The Art of War , in which Anthony Criss played the leading role, should be published as the second part. However, after Wesley Snipes was charged with tax fraud in late 2006 and millions in arrears payments were due, Snipes agreed to turn The Art of War II: The Treason, the sequel to The Art of War . Therefore, the film adaptation with Anthony Criss only appeared in 2009 under the title The Art of War III: Retaliation as the third part of the film series. Sony Pictures had previously secured the film rights to The Art of War from Franchise Pictures , which had to file for bankruptcy after the Battlefield Earth flop in 2004 .

The film was shot in Vancouver and Langley , Canada . Filming began on August 31, 2007 and ended on October 5, 2007. The film was shot as a direct-to-DVD production . The DVD was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on August 12, 2008 in the USA and on October 9, 2008 in Germany. The film sold over 200,000 copies on DVD for over $ 4 million in revenue .

criticism

The lexicon of international films judges the film to be a "very cleverly developed conspiracy thriller of a remarkable technical standard, which offers a platform for its convincing leading actor."

In the opinion of Björn Becher von Filmstarts , the film offers “standard food” that tries to score “with surprising twists and turns and great highlights”. “Plausibility is not considered. [...] By the way, the authors completely forego any great references to their predecessor. ”The film shows a“ rather poor and fairly predictable off-the-peg story ”. Rusnak is praised "that he gave the film an appealing look" by not failing to "skillfully put the skyline of Vancouver in the picture several times". Becher also praised the martial arts sequences and the cast of the film, which is why the film “is above average in the direct-to-DVD area”.

Franziska Bürklin from filmreporter.de says: “As in the first part, fans of martial arts get their money's worth. The crisp fight scenes can't make up for the weak story. "

TV Spielfilm sums up: “» Betrayal «means fraud. How true!"

Awards

Peter Allen was at the 2009 Leo Awards for film music in the category Best Musical Score in a Feature Length Drama nominated.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for The Art of War II: The Treason . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2008 (PDF; test number: 114 792 DVD).
  2. ↑ a b c d Film starts : Film review , Björn Becher
  3. ↑ Internet Movie Database : Filming Locations
  4. ↑ Internet Movie Database : Budget and Box Office Results
  5. ↑ the-numbers.com: The Art of War II: Betrayal - DVD sales , accessed 5 November 2011
  6. ↑ The Art of War II: The Treason. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ filmreporter.de: Film review  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Franziska Bürklin@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmreporter.de  
  8. ↑ TV feature film : film review
  9. ↑ Internet Movie Database : Nominations and Awards

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