Tag

If you click here, you’ll actually realise that I gave a subtle nod to this particular review in the opening sentence. Believe it or not, Tag (or Tig, as I knew it when I was a kid), is based off a newspaper headline, and is in fact a true story. The very premise of grown men running around for the full month of May attempting to tag each other – no matter where they were in the world – was one which I initially scoffed at, and said that it wouldn’t work as a film, it wouldn’t be enjoyable, and it would just be boring. Then when I saw that the film’s runtime clocked in at a baffling 110 minutes (approximately speaking), I wondered if it was just a bloated movie in a thinly veiled effort to make a quick buck. A basic cash grab, if you will. Whatever the case, I went and saw it with my girlfriend anyway, despite my reservations, and in the end I came out more than a bit pleasantly surprised. Not only was Tag worth my time and money, but it had actually been enjoyable. At least from a purely storytelling point of view. And I say that as a minor warning if you like your meaty character-driven movies.

Tag, despite everything, works. But as a character piece, it does tend to fall a bit short of much in the way of major character development, preferring instead to focus almost entirely on the story, so that any potential character development that could be mined for creative and entertainment purposes is left by the wayside in favour of plot. This is but a small criticism, and one which is made so by the fact that the film is so much fun. I never would have thought that a bunch of men chasing each other around in a valiant attempt to tag one another could actually be a good film to watch, and yet somehow everyone involved made sure that it was. If you’re looking for enjoyable, uncomplicated fanfare for your next movie night, then Tag is ‘it’. Because it’s so darn entertaining, it means that you often forget about the potential character developments that are dropped like little crumbs of a bread-trail throughout the movie, before never really being addressed again. It is primarily plot-driven, so if you’re going for the character developments and expansion, then you won’t have nearly as much fun. Okay, so I’m being a tad superfluous for superfluousness’ sake, as there is some character work that is actually addressed and built upon, but it’s only the bare bones that is explored, while other threads are left behind. Technically, it’s not that annoying, but if they ever make a sequel, I feel that these things ought to be addressed in more detail.

Tag follows Hogan ‘Hoagie’ Malloy (Ed Helms) and his best friend Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm), along with stunned yet story-hungry reporter, Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis), as they cross the country to recruit two of their other best friends, Randy ‘Chilli’ Cilliano (Jake Johnson), and Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress), so that they can attempt to tag the only member of their group who has never been tagged in the thirty years that they’ve been playing: Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner). They have three days to complete the task before the month runs out and they have to wait another year. Hoagie believes that this is the year that they’ll finally get him, that they’ll finally beat him, and tag him. They think they’ve got him cornered, as they’ve found out he’s due to be married – even though he didn’t invite them to his wedding. But Jerry is fearsome, brilliant, and will stop at nothing to make sure he doesn’t get tagged. I literally mean nothing (short of perhaps murder), as there is one scene that… I’m not sure if it’s played for laughs or it’s meant to be serious, but either way it leaves a sour aftertaste in the mouth. Other than that, every time Hoagie and his pals think they’ve got Jerry where they want him, he tricks them again.

It is, without laying it on too thick in terms of sheer obviousness, a rather ludicrous true story, but it’s a truth story nonetheless. Tag didn’t have much going for it other than that it’s the film where Jeremy Renner performed a stunt that broke both his arms (we all thought it was during filming for Avengers: Infinity War – or Avengers 4 – but it turns out it was this one), so that would surely have interested some people enough to coax them from their homes and to their nearest cinema/theatre/multiplex to see just what stunt it was. I won’t say which one it was here, but when you watch the movie, you can see how he managed to break both arms. Otherwise, the premise is pretty ridiculous. But at the same time, it’s also quite a brilliant idea. If you’re at that age when you’re just leaving university/college, you’ll begin to notice that the friends you’ve made over the years start dropping off. You say you’ll keep in touch, you’ll try to catch up, but invariably, nothing comes of it. Tag shows the lengths that some friends will go to in order to maintain their friendships – even if they may accidentally be doing the opposite in the process. Tag is refreshingly decent, and despite the overall strangeness of its content, it mercifully doesn’t take itself too seriously. Tag is a fun movie, an enjoyable movie, and more importantly, a funny movie, one that doesn’t try too hard, but still tags all the right checkboxes anyway.