Tag

In all honesty, Tag is the kind of movie that I would never see if left to my own devices because I am not a fan of these type of comedies.  However, I feel like I haven't spent very much time with my niece this summer and, when I suggested to her that we see a movie together, she mentioned Tag or Uncle Drew.  I picked the lesser of two evils.  Ha ha!   I actually ended up liking it more than I thought I would.  A group of childhood friends, Hogan Malloy (Ed Helms), Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm), Randy "Chilli" Cilliano (Jake Johnson), Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress), and Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner), have been playing a game of tag during the month of May for the past 30 years.  Jerry has never once been tagged during the entire game so when Hogan finds out that he is getting married, and will therefore be at specific location at a specific time,  he recruits the other three in a wild plot to finally get him.  The story, based on a real-life group of friends, is compelling and the message about friendship is incredibly heartwarming.  The action sequences are especially fun to watch because the characters go to extraordinary lengths to catch each other, particularly during chases through a golf course and an apartment building.  All of the performances are great but I really enjoyed Isla Fisher (who plays Hogan's incredibly competitive wife) because she is so over the top and Buress whose deadpan delivery is hilarious.  While I did laugh a lot at this movie, I didn't really appreciate the crude humor which exists for no other reason than for shock value.  I think this movie has enough going for it without having to resort to raunchy gimmicks (it was a little bit awkward watching this with my seventeen-year-old niece).  However, if you like these sort of comedies, this one is pretty good.

Note:  It was nice to see footage of the real friends going to great lengths to tag each other and I laughed and laughed during the cover of a Crash Test Dummies song during the credits.