In a Nutshell
Four former classmates, who for the last thirty years have played an annual game of extreme Tag in order to stay in each other’s lives, team up to take down the undefeated fifth member of their ranks before his wedding day.
[imdb]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604/[/imdb]
Review
The friendships that survive the longest are the ones that rely on a heavy dose of nostalgia. Even with the threat of changes to the group or personal situations, all it takes is a silly in-joke, a shared anecdote, or a walk down memory lane to rekindle that bond and bring everyone back up to speed – at least on a sentimental level.
For Hoagie Malloy (Ed Helms) and his friends, this nostalgic trip involves an annual game of Tag that has been going on since records began. As he repeats throughout the course of the movie, it has given them the perfect excuse to stay in each other’s lives. But as the gang gets back together for one last game before the undefeated, never-been-tagged champion Jerry (Jeremy Renner) retires with a perfect record, they soon realize how fragile these friendships really are, with secrets aplenty bubbling beneath the hi-jinks and the camaraderie.
While the concept of getting a feature-length tale out of an innocent playground game may seem far-fetched, the truth of the matter is that Tag is based on actual events. As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the “Tag Brothers” were a group of ten childhood friends who used the game as a way of keeping their friendship alive and playful. It’s a sweet story filled with enough horseplay and buffoonery that to recount it with an all-star cast and a special effects budget actually does it no favours.
Impractical Jokers
Tag is yet another comedy that falls victim to the mishandling of its own marketing campaign. Most of the movie’s big gags appear during the trailer, leaving very tricks left up its sleeve when it comes to the finished product. It’s a shame because some of these scenes are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny on the first lap, but will generate nothing more than a brief snigger on second viewing.
One trick that the film does pull off successfully is to tug on the heartstrings, particularly in the final act. Somewhere beneath the slapstick antics and toilet humour lies a conscious and a strong positive message that will leave a smile on your face. However, Tag comes dangerously close to killing that warm fuzzy feeling with a few inappropriate japes that personally, did not sit well with me. One scene, in particular, is riddled with confusing homophobic rhetoric that leaves the audience bewildered rather than laughing. Another, involving one of the film’s final “pranks” comes across as distasteful, even to the key players themselves.
The biggest laughs (at least in the screening I attended) came right at the end of the film, as clips from the real-life pranksters were shown over the end credits. Some of the antics on display seek to reinforce the stranger-than-fiction origins of the film, but ultimately dismantles everything we’ve seen before. It leaves you wondering why this loose adaptation didn’t at least use the outlandish capers of the source material more to its advantage. Better yet, a documentary would have tickled our funny bones just as well, if the real footage is anything to be believed.
No Girls Allowed
While some of the central cast live into their archetypes with all the fun and humour you’d expect from a potty mouth comedy of this calibre, others are left with little to do but sit on the sidelines and wait to be tagged in. Helms provides the same exaggerated slapstick performance we’ve seen him do well before in The Hangover and The Office, while Jon Hamm is clearly having fun shaking off the ghost of Don Draper, albeit as another wealthy company man.
Jake Johnson’s stoner deadbeat is a bit of a one-note character but provides plenty of solid one-liners to win us over, and Jeremy Renner’s action hero background serves him well as the untouchable, almost supernatural “villain” of the piece. Unfortunately, that leaves hardly any room for Hannibal Buress to flex his comedic muscles as a poorly written nerd whose only job is to deliver existential commentary when the time is right. All we know about his character is that he is in therapy, a plot point which the film seemingly forgets all about, even during the sentimental third act.
With so much testosterone and one-upmanship on show between the male characters, it comes as no surprise that Tag abides by its own “No Girls Allowed” rule. Isla Fisher gives as good as she gets as “one of the boys” but, as the hot-headed wife of Helms’ character, isn’t given much to do other than act like a cheerleader with anger management issues. Rashida Jones is criminally reduced to being nothing more than a point of conflict between two of the male characters.
Leslie Bibb is presented as unlikable from the offset and gets worse throughout, while Annabelle Wallis is literally forgotten about in some scenes, leaving the audience to wonder where she has disappeared off to, given that she plays a vital role as the WSJ journalist documenting the whole escapade.
Time to Grow Up
As the big-screen debut for director Jeff Tomsic, Tag serves its purpose as a pretender to The Hangover throne. However, with almost a decade separating it and Todd Phillips franchise spinner, it feels like this particular style of madcap summer comedy has already been played out. The flashy actions sequences featuring Renner’s slow-mo escapology tricks add some flair to what would be an otherwise run-of-the-mill comedy, but unoriginal jokes, a tone that’s all over the place and poor use of the source material make for a largely forgettable experience.
One silver lining comes from the sentiment the film seeks so desperately to convey. The old aphorism “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop playing” is quoted several times throughout the movie (albeit mis-credited for laughs to Benjamin Franklin instead of George Bernard Shaw) and essentially highlights a deeper theme at play. Tag showcases several male characters who must own up to their own fragility, instead of hiding it away behind a screen humour and machismo. But that doesn’t mean they should stop playing the game altogether. It’s a nice sentiment to take away from a blockbuster film, even if it takes too many ill-judged missteps on the way there.
Despite some funny moments and positive message, Tag is all too conventional, especially when compared to the true events that inspired it.
