In this Bush-Ashcroft age, we do not especially need more strictures on civil liberties, but after this despicable film perhaps the great minds of Movieland could be persuaded to agree on a ground rule: films about nuclear terror must not be risible.

Deals with a chillingly topical nuclear attack on Baltimore. But perhaps more disturbingly, it rehashes it into a Ben Affleck action romance.

An implausible apocalypse without depth or resonance, a cartoon of international politics presented with no James Bond-like playfulness and with all the superficial realism money can buy.

The acts of snooping and slinking about in darkness are rather engaging, even if the obvious components of the plot drag along with little concern for swift pacing.