Tag 2018 * 1/2 Stars

Director: Jeff Tomsic
Year: 2018
Rated R
Rating: * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson

Tag is my latest review and a misconstrued spotlight for the city of Spokane, Washington. It's a film about the game of tag, its adjoining of lifelong friendship, and its silly tag along amendments. Heck, Tag might be the very first pic to ever dabble in the subject of said game.

Now would I rightly recommend Tag? No. Would I call its premise a little too lightweight? Yes. Would I deem Tag to be stupid funny and effectively doltish? In small moments. Finally, would I say that Tag is a rare genre trailblazer? Again no.

Anyway, I knew Tag's chancy trailer would doom it from the start. Tag is based on true events via a story in The Wall Street Journal. I couldn't make this up. A group of middle age men have been playing the same game of tag for over thirty years and yup, they only do it in the month of May. Man that's goofy. Something tells me that these dudes are a little off. Also, it seems that they are starving for attention, are bent on scarring their families, and want a peek at fifteen minutes of fame. In hindsight, Tag is not heinous but it has shades of being a cinematic "red flag". You should never trust a movie in which its production company contains the words "broken" and "road".

Tag is directed by a TV helmer (Jeff Tomsic) and penned by two writers (Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen). It's a poor man's Hangover "makeover". Tag's recycled screenplay reeks of penis jokes, pot quips, bland improvisation, and homophobic innuendo. Basically it feels as though it was written about fifteen years ago. With the addition of an old school hip-hop soundtrack, some R-rated dialect, a messed up waterboarding scene, and some slo-mo, Jason Bourne-like fight sequences, Tag tries to mask how trivial and flimsy it really is. In truth, it's hard to make an efficacious movie about sneaking up on someone and simply tapping them on the shoulder. Maybe a horror version of blind man's bluff or Capture the Flag might have been a better option.

In conclusion, Tag stars Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, Hannibal Buress, and Jeremy Renner. They are the five friends who partake in the pastime of tag and never know how to venture past pubescence. Helms and Johnson are basically playing the same sad sack characters as in all their other movies. And yes, Hannibal Buress is pretty much doing the same line reading shtick as he did when he co-starred in the Neighbors vehicles. As for Jon Hamm and Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner, well they need to scold their agents for recommending that they appear in something as asinine as Tag. Bottom line: If you must, see Tag once but don't get "tagged" along into seeing it again. Rating: 1 and a half stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson