With so many countries having armed forces they decree 'special', it's a wonder there hasn't yet been a film that determines, once and fall, who has the most special. Although this film isn't it, it certainly throws the French claim for that title into the ring.

It's virtually in every journalist's job description to get into trouble, and French journo Elsa (Diane Kruger) is no different. She finds herself in Afghanistan chasing a story, but it's not long before she's treading on the wrong toes. So much so that the local Taliban leader Ahmed Zaief (Raz Degan) decides that his men need to kidnap her and whisk her off to some inhospitable part of Pakistan.

Obviously this news doesn't go down well when it reaches the ears of the French government. With time against them, they decide the best thing to do is send in an elite Special Forces team.

Initially this team of six are only there to monitor the situation, but as happens so often in these precarious conditions, the scenario before them soon gets out of hand.

With their training, getting hold of Elsa her and her fellow captive is bread and butter work for the team. But when their exit strategy fails, they have to resort to plan B. The problem is, there is no plan B. So Kovax (Djimon Hounsou) and his men have to think on their feet in an attempt to get themselves as well as their two new additions out of the country alive. But with Zaief unwilling to let the whole matter go, the team soon find themselves having a hostile enemy on their tail and facing a hostile environment in front of them.

I'm so sorry about this but my moustache is tickling my nose again. Could you give it another scratch?

For his first film, director Stéphane Rybojad has produced an action-packed debut. He's clearly a fan of the action genre as he pulls out all the familiar stops, such as the use of gritty slow motion and a stirring, hardcore soundtrack. But although it's visually highly polished, it suffers from its lack of originality.

It wants to be the French version of The Magnificent Seven, sprinkled with the likes of Platoon, but it's probably more influenced by gaming's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series. At times it plays out like a real-life re-enactment of one or two levels from the game. Although the production values on games like this are phenomenal, it's difficult to translate anything other than the intensity of the action onto the screen.

Overall it comes across like a film that was based on a true story, which would make sense of the fact that it feels like it was holding something back. But the story is fictional, and relies on far too many clichés to see it through to the end. If it wanted to be the all-action film that it appears it wanted to be, it should have let go of wanting to keep a semblance of reality about it.

Performances are, ironically enough, far from special, as many of the characters are nothing more than reinforcing stereotypes of war heroes gone before.

Rybojad still manages to impress with some nicely shot action sequences, as well as some jaw-dropping vistas.

Special Forces is far from being a definitive war film, but still manages to put on a pretty good fight regardless.