Barney's Lebanese Invention

     The third set of 2010 Rewind Series reviews presents us with a mystery/drama in which everyone's favorite lovable schlub gets a little less lovable, a drama about the struggles of immigrants with adorable kids & the best movie ever set almost entirely in the interior of a tank.  That said...

  Lebanon - When I first heard about this film I had my reservations despite the near universal critical acclaim that it was receiving.  I just didn't see how one could place an entire movie in such a limited setting and not end up stifling the storytelling process.  Boy, was I wrong!  I never imagined so much drama and character development could occur in such a confined space.  Many critics have likened the film to the classic German movie Das Boot (The Boat) but to my shame I have not seen it.  It reminded me a bit of The Hurt Locker, only with claustrophobia.
     Israel has really been establishing itself as an important new voice on the international cinematic scene in the last decade. Among other accolades, the nation has earned Oscar nods for Best Foreign Language film four out of the last six years. The introduction of writer/director Samuel Maoz is certainly another notch in their belt.  Lebanon is the film maker's first narrative feature, having previously made the 2000 documentary Total Eclipse.  You would never know it, as his sense of pacing is impeccable and his ability to overcome the limitations of the situation seems evident of a much more experienced hand.
     The picture also boasts a very strong ensemble cast of mostly untried young actors.  The sound work is fantastic.  Credit for the overall quality of production must also be given to cinematographer Giora Bejach, who used both lensing and composition to impressive and creative effect.  Easily the sweetest fruit that the Rewind Series has yielded thus far...5 out of 5 stars.

  Children of Invention - This little indie drama about the challenges that face Asian-American immigrants won a slew of accolades at small film festivals for its director Tze Chun.  It has three competent lead performances.  It sheds light on issues that are important to many people who often lack a voice in the popular media.  It is a well constructed story filled with believably motivated characters.  It features antics from some REALLY cute and talented child actors.  Despite all these facts, it just fell a little flat for me.
     There are a few main factors that resulted in my feeling this way.  First, the supporting cast is a little weak, particularly the cops, who need mustachios to twirl in the interrogation scenes.  Second, actress Cindy Cheung does a great job in the lead role of Elaine, but the character is almost too much of an innocent yet capable super mom to be credible.  Third (and this is really the big one) the film just never took off tonally. Small family dramas of this nature need a slow but deliberate build to a palpable emotional climax that this movie never achieved.  Still, entertaining enough...3 1/2 of 5 stars.

  Barney's Version - This Oscar nominee for Best Make-Up was not the first film from director Richard J. Lewis, although he is certainly better known for his extensive work in the television medium.  The film did not QUITE work, but I would not lay the blame on Mr. Lewis.  He actually appears to be quite talented as an actor's director pulling some great turns out of his cast, notably Minnie Driver, Dustin Hoffman, Rachelle Lefevre, Scott Speedman & Saul Rubinek.  The criminally under-appreciated, but immensely talented young actress Rosamund Pike threatens to steal the film from its formidable star. If her character were not just a tad too unbelievably perfect she might have.  Of course, maybe the point is that she was perfect for Barney, and this story IS Barney's version.
     Many, I fear, will fail to connect with this film in much the same way that many failed to connect with Jason Reitman's 2011 film Young Adult.  Like Charlize Theron's character in that film, Barney is not terribly likable.  I would imagine that many would find this especially disconcerting when such a role is filled by an actor who is normally cast in lovable Everyman parts like Paul Giamatti.  This wasn't my problem with the film, however, the Everyman should not be perfect.  Good people have irritating quirks and aspects to them, and the most charismatic of figures can be rotten at the core.  I personally found Giamatti's work in this film to be marvelously layered and Barney to be a refreshingly believable movie character in many ways.
     Where the film failed for me was in basic plot and narrative structure. Michael Koyves script functions very well as a dramedy, and seems to be one throughout most of the film.  However, he fails to ever really give resolution to this narrative arc, instead letting it trail off into nothingness ten minutes before the picture ends.  Instead, Barney's Version resolves as if it had been a mystery all along.  Thinking back, the first five minutes set it up that way, but the body of the film had an entirely different tone.  As such, the mystery aspect never really built up enough suspense to make that narrative climax satisfying or exciting.  I REALLY wanted to like this film more, but it REALLY ended weakly...3 1/2 of 5 stars.
   
  Related articles: Another Young Project (Young Adult review)

Daddy's Evil Plan

     And the second installment of the 2010 rewind series finds me covering an Italian true crime thriller, a romantic dramedy of errors, and a tribute to the best worst Dad ever.  Today's selection is really about some LITTLE films that most of you were probably completely unaware of.  I hear echoes of a time JUST before TheMovieFrog was set loose...

  Angel of Evil - The Salamander actually caught this on Netflix Instant Play and insisted that I make it a part of the rewind series so I decided to check it out.  It is the first film that I have seen from Italian director Michele Placido but it reminds me very much of the French crime thrillers I have seen in recent years such as Headhunters and particularly the Mesrine films.  Highly stylized violence with a charming but reprehensible leading man that still packs more surprises than your average American action flick.
     I am likewise unfamiliar with the career of leading man Kim Rossi Stuart, who plays the infamous outlaw Renato Vallanzasca with cockiness and vulnerability.  The actor has the charisma to pull off that most precious of characters: the one you love to hate.  He refers to himself in the third person and you loathe him for it, but then he almost gets killed and you ache at the thought of no longer getting pleasure from detesting him.  It is a fine performance, which only suffers by inevitable comparisons to both Vincent Cassell as Mesrine and Edgar Ramirez as Carlos the Jackal, both in movies released around the same time.
     Which is really my one complaint with the film overall.  It's just not QUITE as good as those other flicks.  I enjoyed it but it felt a little like watching an American remake of a great European picture often does, something in the formula seemed a little hinky.  Maybe the problem is that Italian acting and film making styles are rather demonstrative and in a film where the lead character has such a naturally bombastic personality a guiding hand that takes a little more time with the subtleties is more in order...3 1/2 of 5 stars.

  Plan B - The debut feature from out German writer/director Marco Berger has disproved my previous impression that Wolfe releasing dealt strictly in lesbian themed films.  Apparently they distribute films about gay men as well.  In this picture, one man (Bruno) decides to try and get his ex-girlfriend back by seducing her new lover Pablo, who is rumored to be bisexual.  Of course, over the course of the story the men fall in love with each other for real, etc., etc.
     As I'm sure you can guess from just that briefest of synopsis, the film has three primary weaknesses.  The first is that the plot is such a hackneyed, contrived thing.  Obviously.  The second is that the film is totally predictable, and unspools exactly as anyone who has watched very many "gay" movies will expect it to.  The third is that the primary character's motivations are so petty, and his methods so deplorable, that it is difficult to garner much sympathy for him or his rather unbelievably discovered emotions.
     Fortunately, most of the little details are a bit more acceptable.  The script takes this improbable situation and injects it with so many vivid, valid details that you almost begin to believe it.  Bruno and Pablo's overall journey is ludicrous, but the little steps that they take along the way are nicely handled.
     The film's other saving grace is that the primary actors Manuel Vignau (Bruno) and Lucas Ferraro (Pablo) both do decent jobs with their roles and there is a LITTLE sizzle to their onscreen chemistry.  They are both best when they play towards awkwardness, maybe because the premise itself is so clumsy.  I wasn't angry about the time I lost watching Plan B, but I'm not coming back if they make a Plan C...3 of 5 stars.

  Daddy Longlegs (aka Go Get Some Rosemary) - This largely autobiographical film from the Safdie brothers tore up the independent film circuit in 2010 although the chances are probably quite good that you've never heard of it before.  Star Ronald Bromstein won the Breakthrough Award at the Gothams.  The film itself was given the Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirits.  All of this despite the fact that it looks not so much like a low-budget film, but a no-budget film.  In fact, the whole thing might have been shot on a Super 8 camera the brothers found in their parents attic (just a wild guess).  So why did people like it so much?
     Well, two reasons.  First, the script tells a small scale story very, very well. It is basically a character study, one that delves into a very extreme character.  Rather than try to neatly sum up a personality with so many disparate sides, it gives you episodes in the course of a life.  Many of these seem so contradictory that it is hard to believe that they are all about the same person.  Slowly, laboriously, you begin to understand the man as a whole.
     Of course, this sort of tale would never work without a strong central performance, and Ronald Bromstein gives just that.  He never seems to judge or condone Lenny, he just is Lenny.  We may be shocked at Lenny, even appalled by Lenny, but we can never bring ourselves to hate Lenny.  Both lovable and infuriating, Mr. Bromstein's performance allows you to put yourself emotionally into the shoes of Lenny's children with regards to how you perceive him.  Which is, of course, seems to be the Safdie's intention in this backhanded tribute to their father...4 of 5 stars.

  Related articles:  Monsieur Cat-Hunter (Headhunters review)

A Tempest Brings Stranger Shocks

     And the Rewind Series (2010 edition) kicks off with a lesser entry in a modern master's filmography, a drama about a girl's life after her mother decides to kill her & a highly original adaptation of THE classic playwright.  Time wanes, wherefore thou shouldst commence posthaste.

  The Tempest - I doubt any serious film maker sets out to create a body of work that could best be described as divisive and (for lack of a more apt description) artsy-fartsy, but these traits seem to be the benchmarks of writer/director Julie Taymor's productions.  Just four movies into her cinematic career and she's given us a biopic of a world class artist, a hippy dippy excuse to use the Lennon-McCarthy songbook as a soundtrack & two Shakespearean adaptations.  Even Kenneth Branagh throws a thriller into the mix occasionally.  The Tempest split the critics almost right down the middle.  I am happy to say that I fall securely on the happily impressed side of that fence.
     The film is a little rough hewn in places, particularly some of the editing, which doesn't allow the picture to flow from scene to scene as well as it might, but otherwise I found it to be an excellent adaptation of The Bard's final play.  Ms. Taymor did an excellent job of trimming the Five Act play into a two hour picture.  The script seemed neither piecemeal, nor overly stuffed,  which is impressive considering the sheer volume of source material.  The special effects are primitive, to be sure, but fantastically whimsical in a manner that seems conducive to Elizabethan stagecraft.  The scene where Ariel turns into a monstrous bird is particularly delightful, reminiscent of The Dark Crystal or Pan's Labyrinth.
     Ben Whishaw (who is impressing me more and more every time I see him) is fantastic in the role of the captive spirit, bringing both humanity and an inhuman alienating quality to a role made all the more haunting by the marriage of its disparate elements.  Chris Cooper, Felicity Huffman, Alfred Molina, David Straithairn... great performances across the board.  I found the inclusion of Russell Brand shockingly well conceived, but Djimon Honsou nearly stole the show as the subhuman Caliban.  For someone with such a thick Beninian...Bening...Benininese...damn...African (okay?!) accent, he produces some really crisp and carefully inflected Middle English.  He went just far enough over the top without cheapening the production.
     Of course, I say he ALMOST stole it because nothing could take your eyes off of the great Dame Helen Mirren.  It was a bold choice casting the stageplay's lead Prospero as a woman named Prospera, but I think it was also a wise one.  I cannot imagine any male actor crafting a sorcerer with quite the same blend of the scary and the sympathetic.  Of course, this is a vast oversimplification of a performance that takes a well rounded classic character and fleshes him/her out further than I've ever seen it done before.  As a final note, it is sort of wonderful that an actress who began her career as a blatant sex symbol pulls off this material with the ease and grace of a feminine Olivier.  You would think she'd been training for nothing but classical theater all her long and storied career...4 1/2 of 5 stars.

  Aftershock - On the surface, one would expect this tale of the Tangshan Earthquake of 1976 to be a pretty cut and dried disaster flick, but that is only the beginning.  In the aftermath a mother finds her children trapped under the rubble in such a way that the rescue workers conclude she must choose which child to save.  Certainly a dramatic way to find out which of you is Mom's favorite.  The girl is left for dead but survives, spending her life burdened by bitterness and abandonment issues, refusing to seek out her surviving family.
     You really have to consider director Xiaogang Feng's film in two parts. It opens with the actual earthquake.  The movie does an excellent job of painting a picture of a relentlessly hot but peaceful evening in a small village, then ripping it to shreds as chaos ensues.  Aftershock assembles a fantastic ensemble of extras for this scene, and the sense of panic evoked is palpable.  Unfortunately, the effect is muted by the "virtual strings" that show a bit on the outdated CGI technology.  Still, if you can ignore the occasional impression that some peripheral villager just got crushed by a slab of pixels, there is a lot of hopelessness and danger to be experienced in the quake scene.
     The rest of the film tells the story of the separated family in the years that follow.  It DOES wax a little melodramatic, but it also presents the viewer with situations that contain enough inherent pathos to be moving.  The dramatic thrust of the story is firmly centered on the mother and daughter, with the son existing as something of a peripheral character.  The two central actresses give performances which form each other's inverse, in a way.  The mother is played by actress Fan Xu, who is mostly unknown to American audiences.  Her character is easily the best written in the entire script with a multitude of nuances and conflicts to explore and expand upon.  Unfortunately, the actress mostly yells and cries her way through the film, completely ignoring the delicious subtleties she was served up on a silver platter. 
     The daughter (Fang Deng) is played by Jingchu Zhang whom highly attentive viewers (and likely bitter if they payed for a ticket) may recall from English language feature Rush Hour 3.   Miss Zhang is given very little true dramatic meat to gnaw upon by comparison.  The script gives her little in the way of three dimensional emotional complexity.  For most of the film she is merely detached and bitter.  In the final scenes of the film she is given little to work with besides an instant transition from troubled to remorseful.  However, the actress digs deep and pulls far more emotional resonance out of her scenes than they inherently possess. She does much of this internally, while still remaining completely emotionally accessible to the audience, yet without ever devolving into the histrionics that the improbably emotional context of the film so readily invite.
     Each point of the film that I've focused on presents many great strengths, but they are also flawed in some way.  Aftershock is, in this sense, exactly equal to the sum of its parts.  It is deserving of praise but falls well short of greatness.  Still, it is a GOOD movie, just not much more...4 of 5 stars.


  You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - Of all the working directors who are often awarded/burdened by the weight of the title of Modern Master, Woody Allen's body of work is perhaps the MOST uneven.  Pictures like Manhattan, Annie Hall and Husbands and Wives (a personal favorite of mine, Juliette Lewis is particularly AMAZING) practically invented the dramedy genre and set the bar higher than most films of the type even approach. On the other hand, Celebrity was the only film I've ever walked out of during a theatrical showing.  Hell, To Rome With Love showed almost that much variation in quality within the bounds of a single flick, featuring vignettes that ranged from the nearly expired to the merely tired.  I love Woody at his best, but I'm always scared when he comes out with a new feature because it hurts a little to watch him fail.
     Fortunately, while certainly not a masterpiece, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is a good site better than merely watchable and actually delves into some of the Woodman's less well trodden thematic topics.  While the disintegration of relationships over time is certainly present (as always) in Allen's script, the film actually develops into a commentary on faith and spirituality in the modern world.  I don't exactly agree with the writer's tidy and flip answers, but his opinion is always one worth hearing and his trademark wit does its usual task of keeping uber-serious topics from ever turning the picture into a downer.
     Unfortunately, the acting is something of a mixed bag in ways that I never expected it would be.  Gemma Jones definitely steals the show as the recent divorcee seeking enlightenment and Pauline Collins make a very engaging psychic counselor.  Josh Brolin is at his hulking, awkward best and actually seems to pull more substance out of frequent scene partner Freida Pinto than I've seen her exhibit before when she wasn't standing silently framed in sunlight.  The greatest disappointments here are definitely the least expected.  Master thespians Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts actually pale in comparison to their less celebrated cast mates.  Watts in particular is quite surprisingly terrible and Hopkins merely seems lost to the flow of Allen's unique style of dialogue.  Antonio Banderas didn't do a bad job, but he's mostly acting opposite Watts so he faced an uphill battle.
     Stranger is not the picture that Woody Allen will be remembered for in a hundred years, but it is entertaining and a good sight better than the film maker's most glaring failures.  I enjoyed the film, but will not likely revisit it in the future...3 1/2 of 5 stars.

  Related articles:  To Rome, Sugarweenie (To Rome, With Love)

Rewind Series - 2010 Edition

     So, you may have noticed that TheMovieFrog has not had quite the output in May that I wrote in the several months previous...at least not yet.  Part of this has been due to some general housekeeping and catching up on my part.  Part of this has been due, however, to a lack of new films coming out on DVD that I planned to review.  I've decided to use this as an excuse to catch up on some of the films that I never managed to see in previous years beginning with 2010, the year before I started publishing TheMovieFrog.  I had, however already begun viewing a bevy of the year's most important films and grading them in preparation to write it.  As such, there are only a handful that I have not already seen.  There are some years that I caught a pitiful few of the really innovative and essential pictures. Rewinding through those years (this means YOU, 2007) will be epic by comparison.  As of now, my 2010 rewind agenda includes:

  1. Aftershocks - A Chinese disaster movie about one family's recovery after a real life earthquake during the seventies.
  2. Angel of Evil - Italian crime thriller about the notorious outlaw Renato Vallanzasca.
  3. Barney's Version - This best make-up nominee at the Oscars didn't get the most glowing write-ups but it does star Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman.  Even when actors of this caliber stumble, it is worth watching to note that we are all mortal...and who knows, I might LOVE it.
  4. Children of Invention - This Chinese language feature sounds heartwarming in a way that doesn't make me feel nauseous so it's in.
  5. Daddy Longlegs - This itty bitty almost unknown flick got JUST enough attention from the Gotham and Independent Spirit awards to make this list.
  6. The Edge - Russia's 2010-2011 Oscar submission may have failed to garner a nomination but it certainly sounds like a unique film...
  7. Enemies of the People - This tale of a man seeking revenge against the Khmer Rouge sounds like the (highly) rare documentary that plays like a thriller.
  8. Film Socialisme - French living legend Jean-Luc Godard is always worth checking out, even when his directorial efforts sound as potentially convoluted as this one.
  9. I Love You Phillip Morris - I wonder what sort of muggy expression Jim Carrey has come up with to represent "Gay Lust".  This film may have gay themes, but I expect the Human Rights Campaign appreciates the light it shone on these issues in much the same way that PETA valued Ace Ventura.  If Downey, Jr. caught hell over Tropic Thunder, how is Carrey not criticized for doing this film in "gay face".
  10. Idiots and Angels - This feature from cult classic French animator Bill Plympton is an allegorical tale of how a man can change.
  11. Lebanon - This Hebrew language piece is easily one of the most universally acclaimed films I missed in 2010, it has been called the Das Boot of tank movies, which sounds far less ludicrous than "the Citizen Kane of talking pig movies" which Babe actually was.
  12. Life During Wartime - Director Todd Solondz's long awaited quasi-sequel to his much beloved 1998 film Happiness.
  13. Outside the Law - This one was an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film, I believe representing Algeria.  It tells of three brothers caught up in that country's fight for independence.
  14. Passion Play - Writer/director Mitch Glazer did not get the BEST of reviews for this piece, but I can't resist a story about a gangster, an angel, and a trumpet player...especially with Bill Murray in the cast.
  15. Plan B - This Argentinian Spanish language film with Gay themes tells the story of a man who tries to come in between his ex-girlfriend and her new man.
  16. Post Mortem - Before he directed the Oscar nominated No, Pablo Larrain directed this other tale of Chile in the 1970's.
  17. Prodigal Sons - Kimberly Reed's documentary tells of the first time the transsexual film-maker returned home...as a woman.
  18. The Tempest - Director Julie Taymor's reworking of Shakespeare's final play with Helen Mirren playing the lead as the wizard Prospera (re-named from Prospero to fit her gender).
  19. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - Woody Allen's yearly offering focuses on a recently divorced woman who seeks spiritual guidance from a psychic.

     Of course, I am open to adding films if readers request them, but I am trying not to go back over films I've already seen (although if I get several requests to re-watch something and review it, of course I will).  The list of 2010 productions that I have already watched (which as I mentioned, is extensive), and the grades that I gave them (for practice since I wasn't up and Frogging QUITE yet), are as follows:

     5 star films:
  127 Hours
  Animal Kingdom
  Biuitiful
  Black Swan
  Exit Through the Gift Shop
  Gasland
  How To Train Your Dragon
  In a Better World
  Incendies
  Inception
  Madeo
  Mary and Max
  Micmacs
  The Social Network
  Winter's Bone

     4 1/2 star films:
  Another Year
  Blue Valentine
  Carlos
  Day and Night (short)
  The Ghost Writer
  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
  Inside Job
  Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
  The Kids Are All Right
  The King's Speech
  The Oath
  True Grit
  Undertow
  Waiting For Superman
  Waste Land
  White Material

     4 star films:
  The American
  Catfish
  Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky
  Despicable Me
  Easy A
  Enter the Void
  Fair Game
  The Fighter
  Four Lions
  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One
  Heartbreaker
  Jack Goes Boating
  Let Me In
  Let's Pollute (short)
  The Lottery
  Love and Other Drugs
  Mesrine: Public Enemy
  Monsters
  My Name is Khan
  My Name is Maria (short)
  Never Let Me Go
  Nowhere Boy
  Of Gods and Men
  Ondine
  Peepli Live
  Please Give
  Precious Life
  Rabbit Hole
  Restrepo
  Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
  Shutter Island
  Splice
  The Tillman Story
  The Town
  Toy Story 3
  Wild Grass

     3 1/2 star films:
  44-Inch Chest
  8: The Mormon Proposition
  Animated History of Poland (short)
  Around a Small Mountain
  Blood Done Sign My Name
  Book of Eli
  Cemetery Junction
  City Island
  Devil
  Dinner For Schmucks
  Eat, Pray, Love
  The Eclipse
  Everyone Else
  Flipped
  Get Low
  The Girl Who Played With Fire
  The Gruffalo (short)
  Harry Brown
  Hereafter
  The Karate Kid
  Kick-Ass
  Lovely, Still
  Morning Glory
  Night Catches Us
  One Thousand Pictures (short)
  R.E.D.
  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
  Stone
  Tiny Furniture
  Vincere
  Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
  The Way Back
  Welcome To the Rileys
  Women Without Men

     3 star films:
  Alamar
  Blue Beard
  Burlesque
  Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer
  Confession (short)
  Countdown to Zero
  The Crazies
  The Disappearance of Alice Creed
  Dust Kid (short)
  Everything Strange and New
  The Experiment
  Fish Tank
  For Colored Girls
  Going the Distance
  The Greatest
  Greenberg
  Holy Rollers
  Howl
  Iron Man 2
  The Killer Inside Me
  The Last Exorcism
  Leaves of Grass
  Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
  Letters To Juliet
  Love Ranch
  Made in Dagenham
  Mademoiselle Chambon
  Megamind
  Monica and David
  Mother and Child
  My Own Love Song
  Oceans
  Shrek Forever After
  A Solitary Man
  Somewhere
  The Sorcerer's Apprentice
  Tamara Drew
  The Twilight Saga: The Eclipse
  Unstoppable
  William Kuntsler: Destroying the Universe

     2 1/2 star films:
  After.life
  The Art of the Steal
  Barking Island (short)
  Cairo Time
  Casino Jack and the United States of Money
  Chloe
  Clash of the Titans
  The Company Men
  Conviction
  Coyote Falls (short)
  Daybreakers
  The Exploding Girl
  Green Zone
  La Mission
  Percy Jackson and the New Olympians
  Prince of Persia
  Salt
  Secretariat
  Smash His Camera
  Tron: Legacy
  Valentine's Day

     The lists get shorter from here on out.  I try to avoid films of less than two and a half star quality whenever possible, but a few always sneak through (and one is usually up for an Oscar).  Two star films:
  Agora
  Alice in Wonderland
  All Good Things
  Death at a Funeral
  Eccentricities of a Blond Haired Girl
  The Expendables
  Extraordinary Measures
  It's Kind of a Funny Story
  The Last Airbender
  Robin Hood
  Sensology
  Sweetgrass
  Tangled
  The Tourist
  Why Did I Get Married Too

     One and a half star films:
  Babies
  Cique du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
  The Extra Man
  Jelly
  Runaways
  The Temptation of St. Tony

     One star films:
  Charlie St. Cloud
  Jonah Hex
  Legion
  The Lost Thing (short)
  Sex and the City 2
  Skyline
   
     Whew!!!  I'm going to do my utmost to try and see you back here tomorrow for the first three in the rewind.
                                                              Froggy