It seems somehow fitting that Murphy should hook up with Wilson while the former's career is in freefall (Pluto Nash) and the latter's the ascendant (The Royal Tenenbaums).

It's not that Murphy can't deliver... but the movies he chooses nowadays never really rise to his level of quick-fire humour (with the honourable exception of Shrek).

Here he fares a little better than normal as middleweight world champion Kelly Robinson - a sort of fast-talking Chris Eubank (naturally, the lisp has gone).

He's being used by American Intelligence as a front during his next fight in Budapest to conceal the 007-style heroics of special agent Alex Scott (Wilson).

The incompetent spook is out to recover the Americans' hi-tech Switchblade aircraft, which has fallen into the hands of arms dealer Arnold Gundars (McDowell).

Paranoid Scott fears the worst. "You're going to be the Harlem Globetrotters and I'm going to be the white team that look like idiots," he predicts (correctly).

But where Scott has the upper hand with Robinson is the world of state-of-the-art espionage gadgets, including a contact lens that doubles as a camera.

Of course, Jack And The Beanstalk is a miracle of inventive plotting compared to this formulaic fare, but Wilson and Murphy spark quite nicely.

Along with the usual car chases, there's some quality dialogue, including a hilarious exchange of life stories and how they've made them what they are in a Hungarian sewer.

The under-used McDowell's getting too long in the tooth to play a villain and looks like he'd be far happier with a nice, hectic game of crib.

Whereas director Betty Thomas, who cut her teeth on Dr Dolittle, sounds like she should be selling scones in a Harrogate tea-room but handles the action adequately enough.

Based on the American TV series (with Bill Cosby as a tennis pro), this will appeal to both Wilson's growing army of fans and Murphy's waning one.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with w - worth a look.

Tim Evans