Five grown men reunite every year to play a game of tag that has been recurring since their childhoods. If this sounds like a silly premise for a movie to you, then you're absolutely right. While there are some good parts and standout characters to pick from this film, Tag fails to deliver a memorable comedy, despite its incredibly talented cast.
There are many issues with this movie that make me want to (almost) get a refund. All of the characters throughout this film were very bland and when they did have any kind of development, it was severely archetypal. The divorced stoner, the dumb family man, the corporate big-shot, etc. were some of the types that were used, even though we've seen these types in comedies a million times already. And to make it worse, none of the performances were good at all. Even though I don't expect phenomenal acting in a comedy, I would have liked to seen a bit more effort put in by the whole cast, as they are all fantastic artists. Unfortunately, the overlying problem with this movie is the humor. All of it was so badly-written and lowbrow humor that merely got chuckles from me or the rest of the audience. I feel like to keep a crowd engaged with a comedy (because plot is never the biggest focus), the writing needs to actually be quick and clever. This movie had plenty of quick laughs, but nothing that I can distinctly remember. All of it was generic sarcasm, which, however, fit the uninteresting characters. I may not remember much of the jokes, but I do vividly recall two that were way overboard. The waterboarding scene and the miscarriage scene were honestly horrendous. Nowhere in the film do any of the guys portray violent tendencies, so using terrorist-level torture on the gym employee was completely unexpected. It did not fit the tone at all, and neither did the disgusting miscarriage joke. It was a good way to make the audience not like the bride, but good lord, there had to be some other way to do that besides joking about the death of an unborn child.
Other things that I did not enjoy were the inclusion of Ed Helms' character getting sick at the end and the treatment of the women characters. Even though this movie is based on a true story, I feel that it could have ended with a happier ending, rather than the reveal that Helms' character had been sick. I understand that it actually happened, but for the sake of this movie being a comedy, those scenes did not help the tone or pacing. I also did not enjoy how the female characters were treated in this movie. Along with every other character, they were very stereotypical: the aggressive wife, the bombshell crush, and the stern reporter. They did not have much substance besides those archetypes and even though they are not the main characters of the film, I did not appreciate their portrayals.
There are still some good parts of this film that make it worth a single watch, however. I loved how original the premise was and the fact that it is based on a true story made it even better. This did make way for a more heartfelt ending, because it truly showed how a simple, childish game could keep these lifelong friends together through the years. The greatest performances in this movie definitely came from Jon Hamm and Hannibal Buress. Buress' style of comedy is great, as expected, but I especially loved Hamm's take on humor. The typically drama actor has never done much comedy, but he was incredible in this movie. The last part of this film that was done very well were the actual chase scenes and choreography. They were very exciting to watch and made a simple game of tag hilarious. I also loved Jeremy Renner's Sherlock-level analysis during the tag sequences. It worked well for his character and added an extra level of fun detail.
Tag is a forgettable comedy, even though the true story behind it is so wildly entertaining. All of the different elements of this film did not work very well together, which made this movie dull at many points. I would recommend waiting until this comes out on Redbox to see it, as it provides enough laughs to keep the audience engaged, but not enough solid substance to make me want to see it a second time.
My Rating: ★★
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