America's self-styled role as the world's policeman dispensing justice with lantern-jawed fairness gets another run-out.

More than 100 American oil workers and their families are murdered in a terrorist attack on their compound on the outskirts of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The American people want action. Nay, they demand revenge...but the balance of power in the Middle East is such that the usual carpet bombing is out of the question.

No, a softly-softly approach is required. Which, in this case, means blackmailing the Saudi ambassador into allowing an FBI forensic unit into the country to sift the carnage for evidence.

Jamie Foxx and his team have just five days to unobtrusively pinpoint the whereabouts of the cowardly assassins and - what's the phrase? - terminate with extreme prejudice.

However, they face an added complication with the bloody-mindedness of Saudi officialdom and the restrictions of a delicate operation in a hostile environment.

As a lean, efficient action thriller, Peter Berg's topical tale delivers on all fronts, particularly a closing action sequence which takes its lead from Bourne in a heart-pounding sequence of pure adrenalin.

Where's it falls down is portraying a political world of post-September 11 wish fulfilment where no-one but Uncle Sam has the resources, integrity or scientific nous to sort this bloody mess out.

You can't expect a Saudi forensics team to spot shards of glass in a bomb victim's flesh and then put them all together to reconstitute a marble. No, Jennifer Garner has to do that.

You can't even trust these dithering Arabs to correctly comb a blast site for crucial, incriminating evidence. No, that's Chris Cooper's bag.

What you can expect of the Saudis is bureaucratic stonewalling with only Ashraf Barhom's police colonel Al Ghazi offering a resonable level of co-operation.

At the end of the day, it's a supremely efficient action caper handicapped by a political dimension drawn straight from a Neocon wish-list.

Think Team America with the radiators turned up....

Tim Evans