Outside the Box

Momma Loves Mambo

"Mambo Italiano" from Samuel Goldwyn wants us to eat-- "Eat, what'samatter, whyyousoskinny?"-- and sends us a D-I-Y dinner (enough to feed 6): a package of linguini from Trader Joe's and a package of Pomi marinara sauce with an attached recipe:

Mrs. Barberini's Spaghetti Sauce
1 can of tomato sauce, 1/4 cup minced garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon of oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper, 2 broken bay leaves. Heat oil & garlic, "but don't let the garlic brown." Stir in the rest, cover & simmer for 20 minutes.

The movie, from Montreal-based director Emile Gaudreault, features an Italian/Canadian family coming to terms with their son coming out. Mom's the cook no doubt, but we guess she'd never be caught using a pre-made sauce, and she'd maybe concoct a dinner with la salsa a smidge more elaborate than implied here.

Also swagged is a movie-specific "freezer bar" ... we called them popsicles when we were a kid. Branded Fla-Vor-Ice from JelSert, they are proud to say they're a registered drug manufacturer with the FDA. (Is that a good thing?) JelSert makes Fla-Vor-Aid, which is a trivia answer (search for "Fla-Vor-Aid" here) they obviously ignore here. We guess the popsicle is for dessert.

Pic features Ginette Reno, who's been a recording star for about 40 years. Her most recent release reached #5 on Canadian charts and she has earned a passel of prestigious awards. With Paul Sorvino co-starring, a singer himself with recordings released and who's comfortable cooking, he's a natural choice for the movie. We expect duets, with a title song version being the most obvious.

That song has to be in the movie, yes? No one would make a movie named after a song and then not use that song in the movie, would they?

The pic was released on Jun. 6; so we must have missed dinner.

A 'Bad' Hat

Bad Boys II from Sony sends us a golf hat, white terry cloth with the pic's logotype embroidered in black.

Coolness: D. The movie didn't do well enough to make the film hip enough to the people who got this promotional goodie. Only Will Smith completist collectors would seek out this item and both of them already have one, I'd reckon. Maybe wearing it says "I'm so hip I don't care if the movie’s 45 minutes too long and and if the chase scene in the 3rd reel is stupid." Maybe if there was a character in the movie, prominent in the publicity, who's shown wearing a white golf hat ... but there's not.

Functionality: B-. Made from terry cloth, and thus being high soakable, makes this swag good to wear in the sun if that’s what you like... and if that’s what you like you probably have a hat like this already. If the shame of wearing the logo is a problem, you could go to the store and buy a new hat in the time it would take to strip the embroidery off, or sew on a patch, or dye the whole hat black. Try folding up the brim, and risk looking like Gilligan (not to be confused with this Gilligan). Maybe this hat is best headed for the pool cabana for use by guests. But terry cloth is common to other household goods also. This hat is scrubrag-sized for a reason and credit the promotional team for knowing that.

Originality: A+, why? Consider the orginality of the movie itself and note they could have swagged an ordinary baseball cap like some many other productions.

Aug 26, 2003 at 12:17 PM by James Hames in Film | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Requisite First Post

"Brown paper packages tied up with string, /
These are a few of my favorite things."
This blog will document the more interesting, creative, or illustrative promotion items that arrive in the Variety offices. It's written by Jim Hames. For complete details, see the Blog FAQ over there in the side navigation.

Aug 25, 2003 at 06:48 PM by Alex Romanelli | Permalink | Comments (0)