CesarRomero Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Let's imagine Tony Soprano in one of his 3 am near-comas. Rich food and stress is keeping him awake, as the rest of his family sleeps soundly in their Jersey mini-mansion. Having just loaded an extra-extra large hot fudge sundae into his gut, he's half-awake on the sofa, watching television. This is a scene that happened repeatedly during The Sopranos, when Tony would sometimes see an old movie that would cut him to the quick, or else plant a seed of doubt in him, tipping him off to some unsuspected treachery in his world. Tonight's screening is a weird, weird film from 1968...so damned weird that the next day, Tony wouldn't be sure if he didn't doze off during it, adding plot details from his own dream-life.

Skidoo by Otto Preminger--a resounding, loathed failure in its time--has a cult, like almost all failures do. It includes the first appearance by the reliable character actor and acting teacher Austin Pendleton. Also making her debut was the famed pioneer African-American model and Warhol star Donyale Luna (memorable from this photograph you've seen in every beauty salon, in which Luna's leanness and sinew is visually contrasted with a line of elephants). (here's a famous photo of her) Unique casting compliments a really one-of-a-kind musical/satire that shows how beyond "good" and "bad" some films are.

I apologize for tricking you with that headline. You probably even skipped all this text and headed directly for the video, only to be somewhat disappointed that this is in fact not actually a new trailer for The Dark Knight. While Christopher Nolan's latest installment is one of the movies to see in 2008 (aka 2000-Great, according to my friends), the video below is best described as one of the worst films of 1966. Of course, we all love it, don't we? For some reason, Fark.com's hosting of the video claims Leslie H. Martinson's kitchy Batman is even worse than the two Schumacher installments, but really what would you rather watch? If you didn't say this big-screen spin-off of the Batman TV series, then you clearly don't know how to have fun.

Anyway, this isn't the best-edited piece of parody to grace YouTube, but there are a lot of well-synced clips and that shot of the businessman getting zapped is delightfully awful. I personally love Cesar Romero as the Joker and can't get enough. I also really like what was done with the "little fight in you" section of the Dark Knight trailer: The Joker fights Bruce Wayne, who suddenly becomes Batman for the "then you'll love me" line. Sure, it's not as cute as Maggie Gyllenhaal kicking her brother's boyfriend in the nuts, but it's pretty funny. Anyway, you can check out the real Dark Knight trailer -- though you already have, unless you don't know what's good for you -- over here.