Eleanor Reviews

**/*** (2.5 stars) DVD Release In 1970s America, Irving Rosenfeld makes a living as a successful con man. When he meets Sydney Prosser, the pair decide to branch further afield into the world of conning, eventually falling under the eye of the law. To escape prosecution, they must help a young, hot-headed FBI agent to expose the rampant political corruption in the area. I find it hard to comprehend why this film was ever nominated for such an abundance of awards - it was even in the 'Best Film' category! 'American Hustle' isn't engaging, it is wholly unoriginal, and the majority of the characters are wholly unlikeable. It also goes on and on... and on and on! The film is full of glaring inconsistencies that I just couldn't move past: sometimes there is a narrative voice-over, sometimes not; whilst at other times the camera flicked from the face of the person speaking to their hands and then back again, which I found incredibly fr

***/**** (3.5 stars) DVD Release Sergeant Gerry Boyle lives and works within a small coastal community in Ireland, balancing his drug and prostitute habit with the everyday crimes that occur in his patch. Following the discovery of a body and the subsequent arrival of a humourless FBI agent, Boyle finds himself being roped in to help hunt down a team of international drug-smugglers. Well, Brendan Gleeson, who plays the eponymous guard, is obviously excellent: his small nuances and subtle line delivery are spot on, and you could almost miss some of his ‘jokes’ if you weren’t paying attention properly. Here, Gleeson has a multi-layered character to get his teeth into, as Boyle is not simply an unorthodox policeman with a drugs habit, but also son to a dying mother, and genuinely caring individual. With the arrival of FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle), we begin to break down Boyle’s cold exterior, but his true nature is never fully revealed to us. I would have liked

**** It's been five years since we last visited Berk, and the inhabitants are now living successfully and harmoniously with dragons. Our heroes Toothless and Hiccup are an inseparable team and spend their days perfecting their flying techniques and exploring new islands. On one such exploration, they come across a group of dragon trappers, working for the mysterious Drago who is said to be building a dragon army and threatens to ruin all that Hiccup has striven for.  I really liked 'How To Train Your Dragon'. Being an utter softie, I cried a couple of times and then went out and bought it on DVD so that I could enjoy the blossoming relationship between Hiccup and Toothless again and again. I was, then, wary of seeing the sequel - would it live up to one of the best children's films I'd seen? I shouldn't have worried. Unlike a couple of sequels I've seen recently, this film can really hold its own and, whilst it isn't quite as good as the first,