The follow-up to 1997's Kiss The Girls, Morgan Freeman once again plays the role of forensic psychologist Dr Alex Cross, to great effect.

Not a nice man. Lock up your daughters

While the film offers little new in terms of style it nevertheless generates enough tension to keep you entertained for nearly two hours.

It begins with a scene straight out of Hitchcock's Vertigo. A covert operation goes badly wrong leaving Cross's partner dangling above a raging torrent. She falls and, like James Stewart in Hitch's classic, Cross blames himself.

Jezzie Flannigan - Cross's new colleague

He's forced back into action when the daughter of a congressman is kidnapped. The kidnapper Gary Soneji (Wincott) wants his fifteen minutes of fame and leads the detectives a merry dance.

Just when you feel the storyline is becoming too predictable the twists begin to great affect.

It's the strong story which keeps this film interesting because so many elements seem to have been borrowed from elsewhere.

I've told you before. I don't need double glazing

When a ransom is demanded Cross is forced to run around Washington answering telephones for his next set of instructions. Hardly new.

Likewise, when Cross is seeking clues from pictures of Soneji's classroom, the scene becomes reminiscent of Harrison Ford's Deckard character in Bladerunner when he finds information from a photograph.

For all it's magpie like borrowing the film is still a winner. Given that the Cross character originates from a series of successful psychological suspense novels by James Patterson and this film has already proved a big hit in the States, we can expect Morgan Freeman to reprise his role many times in the years to come.