Review of Tag (2018) by Kyle M — 30 Jun 2018

So while the Avengers and Guardians were fighting against Thanos, Hawkeye was playing a childhood game of tag.

A film on a simple game of tag came out of nowhere and piqued interest on what direction it would go that could be somewhat similar to "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with a simple chase being bloated enough to tell a story. The note that pointed out it's based on a true story really stir up curiosity, especially when backed-up with a "not kidding" note. Then when the trailer came, laughter ensued, anticipating a definite viewing instantly. The story may be personally hilarious within the real group, but the cinematic sharing is truly hilarious like almost purely laugh-a-minute.

A small former group of classmates have been playing the same game of tag since 1982, downsized the playability into every month of May, just so they can be kept in touch in each other's' lives, even if it means to travel across the country to unexpectedly approach one of each other. But this particular year is different because the tag virgin Jerry is said on planning to retire from the friendly tradition, so the rest of the group must race against the clock to tag the still untagged Jerry.

"Tag" is a hilarious story of friendship and childhood that really means well in most of the fun times, which redirects the comical simplicity of the game by providing a deeper layer, right beneath, of related stances in agreeable points and hidden problems and reminisced callbacks. Thanks to that very layer, we receive a heartening sense of friendship that blossoms in the nostalgic end. The laughable fun worked due to the charismatic cast tapping into their inner child to get into the game while building a convincing grown chemistry like they really embodied the originals' playful, grown (overly-)competitive but very friendly spirit.

To make things really funny, Jeff Tomsic at his directorial debut added a perfect usage of slow-motion for instant sport strategy being put into played, resulting in clever comic to garner laughter at a guarantee. It would have been interesting to see the action at normal pace for instant replay after the occurred slo-mo. But it's fine the way it is in an okay matter since it achieved two important goals: tell a story and generate laughs.

Next to the usage of slo-mo, the most creative idea is inserting how the story became known with a Wall Street journalist, who's probably the sanest outside the childish play. "Tag" is probably the most unique fact-based flick with familiar elements of the genre being put into comical matter that puts accuracy as irrelevant since it's all about having fun. It does provide a screenshot of the source material in the mid-credit actual footages of the original ten players (it would have been too much if not five on film), without needing to do the notes of currency. (A-).

Make sure to stay till the very end for an extra treat - or you'll be it if you don't.