Portuguese action director José Padilha (Elite Squad) generates a hurtling momentum, especially as the raid takes shape, but his dialogue scenes are indifferently staged.

The war-room negotiations are tautly realised. Bruhl and Pike are excellent, as ever... Still, it's hard to see who the film is for.

The most discernible terror comes not from the hostages huddled in the terminal, who are little more than extras, but from the sense of a director too paralysed by the fear of causing offence to take a perspective.

...an unmitigated disaster of mostly awe-inspiring proportions.