As another one forces its way into our multiplexes amid a rash of Bollywood sequels, the question is inevitable: is this film any good?

Here’s the answer: despite being marked by narrative pace and stylistic pizzazz, Force 2, directed by Abhinay Deo, isn’t a humdinger of a spy thriller.

Yet, while this sequel might not sweep you off your feet, delivers enough thrills to keep you hooked to the high-octane action unfolding on the screen.

ACP Yashvardhan (John Abraham) of 2011’s Force is back. This time around, he teams up with a feckless RAW agent KK (Sonakshi Sinha) to take on a bad guy who knows his onions – and then some.

When Force 2 flags, it is the villain, played with aplomb by Tahir Raj Bhasin, who holds the film together. He gets the best lines and makes them count.

The screenplay has nothing new to offer, the character played by Sonakshi is half-baked and John Abraham’s action hero is limited to peddling the conventional tropes of the genre.

Force 2, therefore, isn’t the force that it might have been had it dared to drift away from the familiar and into the uncharted. That is way beyond the ken of this film.

The Indian embassy in Budapest has a traitor on the precincts. He puts the lives of Indian spies in foreign lands at risk by revealing their identities to inimical forces.

When three RAW operatives, including a close friend of the hero’s, are killed in China, Yash and KK are pressed into service to get to the bottom of the truth.

The bad guy that the undercover agents are up against is a cocky, cocksure crook who thrives on mocking his adversaries.

The mole holds his own against all odds (until, of course, the climactic confrontation).

Bhasin, embodying a minor variation on his career-launching Mardaani act, is a mid-level embassy functionary who has an ulterior motive to snitch on his compatriots.

He is a swaggering show-stealer who gives as he good as he gets and never recoils from a challenge even when the chips are down.