With unfriendly CIA colleagues on his heels, Nathan Muir (Redford) faces a tough challenge. His buddy Tom Bishop (Pitt) has been captured mid-mission and is enduring serious torture at the hands of Hong Kong prison guards.

There's no way the agency is going to risk anything at all to save Bishop, who recently gave up CIA work and began spying for other groups.

Muir cannot convince his colleagues to help him, so he breaks all the rules and embarks on a fraught solo mission, which involves breaking security codes and lying to his employees on a grand scale.

Tony Scott has glitzed up the dingy underworlds of Hong Kong and Beirut to build a smart and glamorous espionage thriller.

Stylistic tricks keep the action running at lightning speed, but the intricacies and deceptions become increasingly cumbersome as it becomes clearer that no one can be trusted.

Pitt and Redford make a handsome pair, and come across convincingly as hard-nosed spies who are growing tired of the game.

Backwards and forwards in time, the story takes the audience from the time the two first met to the last day that Muir sees on the job.

Fast and thrilling with some gruesome moments, this is Hollywood action at it's best.

Natalie Stone