Tag

One month every year, five highly competitive friends hit the ground running for a no-holds-barred game of tag -- risking their necks, their jobs and their relationships to take one another down. This time, the game coincides with the wedding of the only undefeated player. What should be an easy target soon becomes an all-out war as he knows they're coming to get him.

Tag is one of those silly movies you see in in the advertisements section of another film that actually makes you laugh, but then you really want to go and see it when it's out - it has a really silly and childish yet incredibly powerful message. From first glance, this film may appear as a failure, it hasn't been received massively well and it hasn't reached the heights in the box office either, but looks can be deceiving, as shown by this film. It pains me to say it, because of the plot being a lifelong group of friends literally playing tag, but I actually enjoyed the film and from the laughs and other reactions during the film, I feel that the audience I was with, enjoyed it too. One of my favourite parts of this film was the transitions of age, we were constantly shown the differences between the characters as adults and how their friendship evolved and adapted as they got older and settled down. As their lives changed, their game of tag clearly didn't. Constant transitions of kids cycling around the block, to a group of men driving around in a car, really helped the audience to see the types of personalities that were in the film. I strongly feel that the film introduced the characters to the audience really well, and this also had a lasting positive impact on the film, because we were able to see their individual friendships change and adapt. These were due to many factors such as old girlfriends, injuries or even being tagged. And this was really great to see as an audience. I also loved the inclusion of Andy from The Office, or should I say Ed Helms. I think that Ed really excelled in this role, and personally for me, he stood out from the crowd simply because of his sense of humour and just general acting seemed to really fit the personality and characteristics of 'Hoagie' perfectly. Through funny jokes, to slapstick moments, I really think that Ed helped to make the film and was a key to it's positive reception. The general humour within the film was also really good, I found myself laughing a lot during this film, mainly due to the character 'Sable' who just seemed to have a great relationship with the audience. Many of the things he said, evoked a laughter from the audience. But it wasn't over the top comedy, it was executed perfectly and this again really stood out as one of the main positives of the film. Other funny moments such as 'Randy' setting up the bong for his Dad, or 'Sable' questioning the flirting between Hoagie's mum and 'Callahan' through some funny language. It almost reminded me of American Pie type humour, but slightly updated and remastered - it was a good and enjoyable type of humour throughout the film.

The use of slow motion commentary when Jerry was under attack compared, to the switches and varieties of camera angles and shots was really well done. Not only did this combination make for some funny fight scenes, but it also made the scenes tense and actually managed to evoke some positive emotions from audiences. Throughout this film, there was a variety of different themes suggested, from horror audio and a race against time, to a much more relaxed and positive vibe. I feel that the ratio was done really well. I was slightly confused as to why there was a mixture of themes, but soon after, it really started to have a positive impact and help to keep the film fresh and entertaining. The constant questioning of "what's going to happen next" and "how will he trick the group" kept the audience guessing and created a mysterious feeling to the film that kept it surprising and refreshing for the audience - typically the audience had no idea of how events would play out which I feel was a nice touch to help engage with them. And the use of mystery was also manipulated to play with the audiences emotions too, like I've mentioned, there were plenty of comedic moments but there were also plenty of sad moments too - such as when 'Hoagie' announced he had cancer and didn't expect to be around for the next years game. The film was supposed to be a comedy, but if offered much more to the audience than just laughs in that sense, this links onto my favourite part about the film. The manner in which the friends were organised and bounced off of each other seemed really genuine, it was a really believable friendship group, which most audiences will find relatable. This helped the film to have a really genuine connection with the audience. Not many films I've seen have that effect, to make you wonder about your friendships and just general consider what is important to you and your group. And I loved that about this film.

If you're looking for a top 10 IMDB film this film's not 'it' (I should get a top 10 award for that pun though). It presented a strong message to the audiences about friendship and relationships which came across really well to audiences, but I just don't feel that the film presented enough to get a really high score. It just didn't seem to take enough risks. I feel that switching between characters sometimes works if it's between two or three, but not for a large group and it just made it confusing for the audience to keep up with what was going on in the film. Some elements of the film were - dare I say it - childish. I understand it is supposed to give that vibe, but it just seemed to take this a little far for my liking, although for some audiences this may not have been childish enough. I also wasn't too sure of the relevance of the reporter too. She seemed to follow the characters around and when she had dialogue, which was little, it didn't really seem to have a massive effect, which is a shame because at the beginning I really thought that she would take control in her role.

There were also some issues with the plot too, I mean when 'Callahan' gave away $2500 cash from his pocket - is this really believable? No one really carries around that much cash with them surely? Also the choice of car seemed to switch and change from scene to scene, I understand that there were multiple characters but I'm just not too sure if the addition of so many vehicles was necessary - especially when they had the same driver.

Overall, I enjoyed the film. I would rate this film a 7.5. It really did make me laugh and as I've mentioned, it presented a really genuine group of friends and showed this in a way with meaning for the audience to take away. The start of the film was great, but after the start, the film experienced hurdles. Some it could overcome, and some it couldn't. But it did have it's issues, similar to those of a typical comedy film of this genre. It would've been especially refreshing to have seen these addressed, simply to see how ambitious the producers could have been with this film but unfortunately, this time they weren't ambitious enough for my liking.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it and watching the film. I would like to add in thank you so much to everyone who has read my reviews, I really enjoy watching the films and writing about them and it's great to see that people enjoy reading them too! Thank you so much :)