Wesley Snipes character from the first film is retired. However when a friend is blackmailed and another friend is killed he's drawn back into thee world of espionage.

Good looking, but uncaring sequel could have worked had anyone cared, unfortunately no one seemed to with the result its a disposable thriller that isn't bad but isn't worth the time it takes to watch it. The script isn't the problem here since there are some nice twists, the problem is the cast who sleep walk through it all especially Snipes. I'm forced to ask if Wesley Snipes was so hard up for money that he took this just to get cash to pay for his legal bills? Its enough to make me dislike the man and his movies completely. Clearly it was done for the money, hopefully it won't make any and we won't get another film in the series.

Agent Nigel Shaw(Wesley Snipes)comes out 'retirement' to avenge the murder of his former mentor. Along the way he allows himself to do some work for a friend(Lochlyn Munro),an actor turning candidate for the Senate. He ends up trying to protect current Senator Carlson(Rachel Hayward)from possible assassination. Shaw does his digging and finds a round robin of political corruption and dead bodies keep piling up. A romance starts brewing when Shaw's mentor's daughter Melina(Athena Karkanis)begins sticking to him like glue.

Some high octane martial arts and very good special effects. A simple story seems to become a snake uncoiling. The high tech surveillance is interesting, but the movie on a whole is a bit of a let down. Snipes is very much the hero and Karkanis is so easy to watch. Others in the cast: Winston Rekert, Ryan Mcdonald, Eric Brecker and Olivia Cheng. Its anyone's guess about a third episode.

More straight-to-DVD action nonsense, this one starring Wesley Snipes and a nominal follow-up to THE ART OF WAR (I can't remember anything about that, so it must have been good).

THE ART OF WAR II: BETRAYAL does the usual rounds with its story of political double-crossing, a sinister criminal mastermind, a wronged man, multiple assassination attempts and of course one just, ass-kicking hero. I quite like Wesley Snipes, but his talents are wasted here and criminally the fight scenes are poorly handled.

The important thing about movie fights is that the camera steps back to show the actors utilising their skills - this is why films such as Donnie Yen's FLASHPOINT are so good, because the participants in the fights are brilliant at what they do. By contrast, the fights in this movie are fuzzy, poorly edited so you can't properly see what's going on. Most annoyingly of all, one key scene has a fight taking place in the dark! The plot is absolutely nothing to write home about, and the characters are as bland as they come. They even throw in some terrible CGI effects just when you thought the film couldn't get any worse. The resultant film is pitiful and uninteresting, just another forgettable straight-to-DVD action flick.