This is a pretty boring piece of work, festooned with articulate actors given 30 seconds flat to make their mark and feeling the pinch a bit.

The Fourth Protocol is a good, old-fashioned thriller. Which is what is wrong with it. Movies have come in from the cold war now, yet "Protocol" in essence lukewarms up the format.

What is missing is any real tension or psychological detail that might lend plausibility to all the hocus-pocus about East-West political and military intrigue.

Caine, as always, is a joy to watch, whether grimly tracking his man, telling off his supercilious boss, or, sloshed on New Year's Eve, blowing a wall safe in a posh London pad.