Tag (Dir Jeff Tomsic, 1h 40m)

Tag, loosely based upon a true story of ten men and their twenty plus year game of tag, is an interesting film-in paces it's a dark, if slightly bitter-sweet comedy, with a group of mismatched characters co-operating to finally tag the previously unbeaten champion of the game, in others a bizarre, slightly disturbing exploration of a group of men that have never truly moved on from childhood, as they wreak both physical and emotional damage upon the people surrounding them. Yet the film sits between the two, an uneasy mix that works perfectly in some places, and clashes badly in others.

It is the relationship between the group that undoubtedly forms the heart of the film, as Hogan "Hoagie" Malloy (Ed Helms), Bob Callahan (John Hamm), Randy "Chilli" Cilliano (Jake Johnson), Kevin Sable (Hannibal Burress) and Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Reiner) continue their decades long game of tag every May, and despite their physical distance apart, and changes in circumstance, from Bob now running a company to Chilli being penniless, living with his father, and divorced from his wife, there is clearly a chemistry between the main four of the group, despite their clear dysfuctionality with each other in places-Chilli and Bob bicker over a former flame, Sable seems unwilling to be dragged along with the rest of the quartet, and Hogan's leadership of the group is at points quixotic

Jerry, meanwhile, deliberately isolates himself from the group, and it is his annoucement that he will be leaving the game and getting married that spurs them into action. Jerry...is the best thing about the film, with Reiner executing every single one of his action chops, including a fight with Hoagie, whilst the latter is dressed as a woman, a double-bluffing break-in where Reiner taunts his audience, and a prolonged and well choreographed chase across a golf course. Jerry's abdication at the end of his his untagged run pulls our characters together, in a series of bruising encounters as each is recruited, in some cases forcibly, and the quartet roll on to their home town. From here the film rapidly gathers pace, with the group slowly tracking down Jerry, and through the preparations for his wedding, attempting to finally tag him, before a bittersweet denoument turns much of the reason for the game on its head.

If Tag has a problem, though, it's the film's tone-in many places, it doesn't know whether to be out-and-out comedy, darkly comic, or just out-and-out unpleasant-there's a particular sequence in which tthree of the four, straight after a long and enjoyably daft go-kart chase, find themselves trapped in a pitfall-riddled forest, and are slowly dispatched by people in the employee of Jerry in a psychologically dark sequence.
There is also, for all the enjoyablity of Jerry's character, a certain disturbing element to how seriously he takes it, more suited to a disturbing horror movie than a frat-ish comedy, as well as two sequences that seem malicious in this otherwise fun film.

At the heart of Tag, though, is a sweet, if uneven story about friendship, and the bonds with friends, and how they weather time, despite friends drifting apart, as well as the idea of their shared time together strengthening their friendship. Though the original tale may have been an better adventure, Tag is nonetheless a solid, entertaining flick

Rating: Recommended