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It’s all incredibly creaky, decidedly low budget and, despite being co-written by Private Eye’s Ian Hislop, all rather toothless and low on chuckles.

All credibility and tension, manifested during the bulk of the film, is completely robbed at the final hurdle by a ludicrous ending.

The whole movie has a slightly flat “filler episode of a BBC political drama” feel to it.

[Brosnan is] put through his paces by Maori director Lee Tamahori and comes out of it stirred, but not shaken.

Whilst Hounded doesn’t have a great deal to add to the premise, it does have well-drawn characters and a capable young cast who are well worth watching.

The psychological drama, which Pearson handles with impressive assurance, is the strongest part of the film.

The early part of the film is impressive.

The musical accompaniment is powerful and one feels the viewer is in for a treat, but soon the wooden puppets become, well, very wooden and the wonderful aesthetic loses its attraction, with each movement taking too long.

James Bond is back with a vengeance.

Amazingly for a film so teeming with ideas, it unspools in clean, lucid scenes of near Spartan simplicity.