Urban angst in Hackney

Bullet Boy explores the same urban desperation that powers Boyz 'N The Hood and La Haine, but still remains resolutely British. It also belongs indisputably to one-time So Solid member Ashley Walters in his first feature film role.

He plays 19-year-old Ricky, fresh out of youth custody and determined to make a new start, who is immediately snatched into a downward spiral of violence.

Hackney makes a suitably dismal backdrop for the fatal conflicts that play out with a wearying sense of inevitability, and writer/director Saul Dibb emphasises the way pressures explode in cramped inner-city spaces with his uncomfortably tight camera shots.

Walters is deeply affecting and has some excellent back-up from his co-stars. A bold, challenging and very moving film.

Extras: Making-of documentary, audition footage, Asher D video diary and trailers.
Rating: ****

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Babyfaced rapper Ice Cube isn't an obvious choice for the macho special agent in XXX: The Next Level. He scowls his way through scene after SFX-heavy action scene as some military plot or other unfolds and an enthusiastic but inept agent (Scott Speedman) focuses on stopping XXX, rather than the actual baddies.

Samuel L Jackson, popping up again as XXX's handler, adds a little much-needed gravitas and Willem Dafoe is excellent as Baddie Numero Uno. But fans of the first film, a Bondstyle extravaganza in which Vin Diesel extreme-sported his way to victory, will be sorely disappointed.

Extras: Commentaries, deleted scenes and featurettes - including one where Dafoe admits to modelling his fiendish character on Donald Rumsfeld.
Rating: **