Mickey Rourke

Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata clearly feels passionate about the problems in his country, but despite the presence of Hollywood stars the movie is made in a style that will feel amateurish to Western audiences. Obvious screenwriting is the main problem, ramping up melodrama when political intensity is needed. Essentially, a more organic approach to storytelling, with attention to the characters instead of the themes, would have made this a much more powerful thriller.

After studying in America, 21-year-old Ebiere (Mbong Amata) returns home to her Niger Delta community just in time to witness a horrific oil-company accident in which most of her family perishes. As the most educated person in her village, she rises to a position of leadership among the rebels fighting for fairer treatment from petrol executive Tom (Mickey Rourke) and the corrupt military, which responds with relentless violence, betraying and brutalising the villagers. As she falls for rebel commander Dede (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), Ebiere becomes even more important. And things take a further turn when she's charged with murder after a protest turns fatal. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, desperate Nigerians (including Wyclef Jean and Akon) take Tom hostage along with a local reporter (Kim Basinger) to demand justice for Ebiere's plight.

Writer-director Amata made this film three years ago, then reworked it to add the L.A. sequences in an effort to make Nigeria's struggle feel more current in the context of global activism. This works to an extent, as it stirs the hot topic of terrorism into the mix. But the big action set pieces are directed and edited in a choppy way that feels undercooked. The story of desperate political activism amid heavy-handed corruption is compelling, but it's watered down by some rather soapy interpersonal plot points. Still, the film remains involving, a powerful tale of little guys standing up to forces much bigger than themselves simply in the name of what's right.

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It's taken nearly 10 years for filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and graphic novelist Frank Miller to get around to making this sequel, but it was worth the wait because the technical advancements make this second triptych of stories even more visually stunning, and the emotional resonance is even stronger. This is a lean, mean noir thriller that doesn't waste a single moment as it rips through three interlocking plots that centre on revenge for the events of the first movie.

Two people are out to get even with the ruthlessly nasty politician Roark (Powers Booth). Watched over by the hulking Marv (Mickey Rourke), gun-toting stripper Nancy (Jessica Alba) is still heartbroken after Roark killed her beloved Hartigan (Bruce Willis), who appears to her as a ghostly apparition. And Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is determined to bring Roark down by humiliating him at his own high-stakes poker game, even though merely having uncanny good luck might not be enough. But the main story centres on private eye Dwight (Josh Brolin), who is stopped in his tracks when he encounters his old flame Ava (Eva Green), a bombshell who has power over most men she meets. She asks for help with a domestic problem, and Dwight is powerless to walk away even though he knows something is fishy.

As before, these stories unfold exactly as they would in a graphic novel, with blunt dialogue and strikingly visual imagery black and white that's spotted with flashes of colour. Aside from Ava's blue coat, that colour is usually red: hair, nails, lips, but not blood, which splashes in glaring white. It looks fantastic in (ahem) eye-popping 3D. And it's fiercely violent as death hovers around the residents of Basin City, especially the lawless Old Town district. But there's just as much emphasis on surging passion, including some surprisingly graphic sexuality that plays up how helpless men are around a scantily clad woman. Indeed, it's rare to see an action film in which the women are so resolutely in charge.

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It's also relentlessly positive, interviewing only family, friends and people he inspired.

Born in San Francisco, Lee made more than 20 films as a child in Hong Kong and became a champion dancer. Facing racial and gang problems (he was a quarter German), he returned to America at 18, where taught martial arts and Chinese philosophy and fell in love with a student (Lee Cadwell). As a natural showman, TV producers cast him in The Green Hornet, but he hated being told what to do.

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