Arm yourself with a mountain of crisps and a six-pack for this lightest of light entertainments that runs like a cross between an Indiana Jones caper and an old Forties serial.

Full of get-up-and-go and feistily directed by Simon Wincer, the story, set at the end of the 1930s, is about a masked phantom of the jungle who becomes caught up in a ploy by a crooked NY businessman to gain possession of three jewel-eyed skulls that will enable him to control the world.

Or at least, that part of it not about to be ravaged by impending world war.

Billy Zane, Kirsty Swanson and Catherine Zeta-Jones are well up to the demands of the hero, heroine and villainess and the action is as tightly shot as in any Forties 'chapter play'.

On the down side, it is rather lacking in witty dialogue, but still enjoyable enough as a faithful record of a long-running comic-strip hero - one of the few comic book movies, like Spider-Man and X-Men, that was acclaimed by the fans of the source material.