They say that very few directors do anything original. Indeed, Scorsese himself concedes that the art of directing is, more than anything, based on borrowing a number of other ideas and combining them to create a new one.

This however, does not excuse the blatant pilfering that envelopes each and every scene of Highwaymen.

The plot is decidedly simple - after seeing his wife run over in blood so cold you could mistake it for a strawberry Calypso, Jim Caviezel's Rennie takes the law into his own hands, chasing down the culprit and ramming him so hard he ends up with several missing limbs and one eye.

But instead of finding justice, Rennie created a monster that terrorises young women on the road by, well, running them over in a big car.

So obviously it's down to Rennie to stop him, especially before he gets a chance to kill off the surprisingly feeble Rhona Mitra.

You need only see one or two scenes to get an idea of what the director was aiming for – the dusty open roads, souped up and muddy American tank-like cars - it's like a western but with motors for horses and a hero looking for justice in a lawless world.

Or at least, a world that pays out compensation and insurance premiums.

But in order to enjoy the movie, one must suspend disbelief from a windmill and hope it doesn't blow away.

Cars fly around as though made of polystyrene and damsels are distressed by unarmed men in wheelchairs.

Despite lifting plenty of ideas from director Robert Harmon's previous cult0-hit The Hitcher, Highwaymen fails to crank up any tension. Which is a bit rubbish in a movie with one sole aim – to crank up tension.

And to say there are no surprises is an understatement – the bad guy is revealed as Colm Feore in the credits, yet Robert Harmon insists on not revealing his face for over an hour.

Instead, we see numerous shots of his metal limbs changing gears a la Duel.

There is some fun to be had from all the action and the cast do an amiable if somewhat forgettable job. It's just a shame that the very best moment of the movie doesn't arrive until the last five seconds. Even though it is a moment that undermines one of the major themes of the whole movie.

Richard Phippen