After "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", you would have thought Nicolas Cage had had his fill of war movies. But here he is again, up to his neck in blood and bullets as a battle-scarred US marine assigned to protect a Navajo Indian (Beach) who holds the key to victory in the South Pacific.

"Inspired by true events", "Windtalkers" is based on the real-life native Americans recruited as marines and trained to use a secret military code based on their native language. The catch is that the code must not fall into enemy hands. (In fact it remained the only code never to be broken by the Japanese.) So Sergeant Joe Enders (Cage) has a dual role: keep his charge from harm, and kill him if he is compromised.

This being a John Woo movie, such ethical considerations take second place to epic scenes of explosive destruction that make "Pearl Harbor" look like a skirmish in a bath-tub. Woo is in his element orchestrating carnage, and every time the pace flags you know you are only moments away from another set-piece battle or surprise assault.

Alas, in the wake of "Saving Private Ryan", "Black Hawk Down" and "We Were Soldiers", you are likely to be as heartily sick of mayhem as Cage's war-weary marine.

Don't be surprised if you find yourself hankering for the earlier, more romantic scenes involving Cage and sympathetic nurse Frances O'Connor, and wishing they hadn't been brutally trimmed to make room for so much gory, ear-bashing combat.