This booming and bloody Second World War drama could have illuminated a little-known aspect of the conflict, in which native Americans used their language as a military code that couldn't be cracked by the Japanese. Yet this fascinating angle is explored with the heaviest of hands by director John Woo. There's a nicely performed relationship between genial Navajo Adam Beach and cynical sergeant Nicolas Cage, but it's buried beneath a barrage of gargantuan explosions and melodramatic skirmishes, orchestrated with a surprising scarcity of excitement or energy. Following their moment of Hollywood magic with Face/Off, Woo and Cage seem to be going through the motions - or worse, taking themselves too seriously.

Joe Enders is a gung-ho Marine assigned to protect a "windtalker" - one of several Navajo Indians who were used to relay messages during World War II because their spoken language was indecipherable to Japanese code breakers.