TAG Movie Review

TAG (2018)

Watch the trailer
Written by: Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen (screenplay by), Mark Steilen (screen story by), Russell Adams (based on the Wall Street Journal article entitled "It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being It")
Directed by: Jeff Tomsic
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones, Hannibal Buress
Rated: R

Plot
One month every year, five friends risk their jobs and relationships in a no holds barred game of tag. This year, the game coincides with the wedding of the only undefeated player.

Verdict
It has it's moments, but it left me hoping for more. It's just amusing, but never laugh out loud funny. It's the kind of movie that makes you think of comedies you like more. While it has some fun scenes and dialog, it's never sustained. We get sharp dialog, but nothing really quotable. There are a few elaborate chases, but not enough action. This has a lot of potential, and while in no way is it squandered, it could have been better.
It depends.

Review
The premise is simple. A group of friends, Hoagie, Bob, Chili, Sable, and Jerry, have been playing a game of tag for decades. this has some fun moments with men playing a kids game and the dialog is often pretty sharp, but the premise wears thin and it fails to explore a couple of insightful points brought up.

In May of every year, the game occurs. In the off season, the loser wallows in shame. Jerry is the undisputed champion, never having been tagged, ever. This year, Jerry is going down. He's getting married, so his friends hope to finally corner him.

Jeremy Renner is the undisputed champion Jerry.

I realized early on that this isolated Jerry from his group of friends and gave them a common bond to strengthen their relationships while he was left out. I hoped the movie would delve into this, but it's given a throwaway line that rings hollow. There's a quick clip of how the game has kept them in touch even on important life moments. That should have gotten more time. Is this a silly movie about a game or something touching about friendships. It could be both, but it sways more to the silly side.

This movie did illicit a few smiles from me, though never a laugh. It has truly fun moments. All of the characters are pretty one dimensional, which works fine in a movie like this, and gives rise to a few one liners. The humor is juvenile, which I don't necessarily mind, but this relies too heavily on crude jokes instead of putting these guys in ridiculous situations to get the tag. Buress has quite a few odd musings that could be the foundation of a joke, but they fail to materialize.Instead of building jokes to a payoff, we get dick jokes.

The focus is on this one month. It might have been better to show some of the highlights as this feels padded. There is a reporter introduced in the second scene that acts as audience surrogate to ask questions and receives exposition about the game, but she's soon relegated to a silent background character without purpose. While she presumably will publish the article upon which the movie is based, it's just clumsy.
Wedding Crashers managed to state their rules without a surrogate or lengthy exposition. Something similar could have been employed here. Characters could have argued over a particular rule and gone to the handbook.

There's also a love interest in the movie, and it feels inserted just to pad the run time and create a false sense of tension between Bob and Chili. While it's part ruse on Jerry's part, we get a flashback with this character too despite the fact she doesn't serve much of a purpose.

This movie made me think about Wedding Crashers because I really like that movie and wish Tag could have been better. Tag isn't as quotable and save for just a couple of scenes, never gets all that silly despite the premise.

Remember, no tag backs.

The end has a shift in tone. This is a movie that makes you second guess what you're seeing as it could be part of the game. We've already gotten some big fake outs and there is one that just didn't play. While it did get us to a fun closing scene, it was a rocky segue because I kept waiting for the reveal that it was a joke. The final scene is a very simple game of tag, and I wish the movie had focused more on that. While the movie frequently reminds us that you only get old when you stop playing, this doesn't explore the tribulations of middle age and what this game means to the characters. The sentiment and meaning get lost in elaborate escapes.