Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Tag Blu-ray Movie Review

It! (But No Clowns)

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 13, 2018

Would Tag be as funny if it weren't based on a true story? Hard to say. In 2013, The Wall Street Journal published a feature article about a group of friends from Spokane who had been playing the same game of tag since childhood. The game had preserved their friendships and kept them involved in each others' live for decades. Screenwriters Mark Steilen (Shameless) and Rob McKittrick (Waiting) expanded the story into a live-action cartoon of a screenplay. TV veteran Jeff Tomsic directed in his feature debut. The resulting film, made for a modest cost, is entertaining enough to have returned a solid profit for Warner's New Line division, thanks to an energetic cast who throw themselves into this truth-is-stranger-than-fiction premise with uninhibited gusto.

Every May is "tag" month, where the last person who was "it" has to track down other members of the group and restart the game. This year, it's Hoagie Malloy (Ed Helms), who informs his fellow members that this may be their last chance to tag the elusive Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner). In all the years of the game since childhood, Jerry has never once been tagged, and Hoagie has learned that Jerry plans to retire undefeated due to his impending marriage to Susan (Leslie Bibb). Determined not to let Jerry escape with a perfect record, Hoagie assembles the old gang and heads for their hometown, where the wedding is being held. They are accompanied by Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis), a Wall Street Journal reporter who just happened to be interviewing slick operator Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm) about the questionable finances of his insurance company when Hoagie bursts into the conference room with the news about Jerry. Sensing a unique story, Rebecca follows Bob and Hoagie as they scoop up stoner buddy "Chilli" Chilliano (Jake Johnson) and reluctant participant Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress)—and scheme to take down Jerry before he can escape untagged.

Like any good game, this one has rules, which were written down long ago and can only be amended by group consensus. One rule is that girls aren't allowed, which doesn't prevent Hoagie's wife, Anna, from enthusiastically joining her husband in scams designed to lure other players into being tagged. Anna is played by Isla Fisher, who, as she often is, turns out to be one of the best things in the movie, because she's even more competitive than her husband (if that's possible). Also, unless I missed something, she's the only character who actually gets bloodied from the rough and tumble of the game (not that the injury slows her down for an instant). Fisher's crazed Anna is the polar opposite from Wallis' quizzical reporter, who can barely suppress her incredulity at the crazy spectacle into which she's stumbled. Falling somewhere between those two are Bibb's eager bride, whose main concern is that her groom's buddies don't spoil the rehearsal or the wedding with their antics—rule amendments are required—and a childhood friend named Cheryl Deakins (Rashida Jones). Cheryl grew up with these guys, and Bob and Chilli competed for her affections. She watches their adult antics with bemused detachment, but just as Jerry anticipated when he invited her to the festivities, Cheryl is an effective distraction.

Video supplied by the real-life inspirations for these characters confirms that some of the film's most outlandish stratagems are drawn directly from actual events, but Tag's humor derives from its no-holds-barred exaggerations that turn every encounter, especially with Jerry, into a Roadrunner cartoon with multiple Wile E. Coyotes. The players fall from bone-crunching heights, absorb whiplash-inducing collisions and crash into obstacles and each other with a force that would send ordinary folk to the emergency room or the morgue. But they keep rising after each pratfall, unbruised, unbowed and ready to leap back into the fray. You almost expect to see a halo of stars or tweeting birds around their heads (cue Roger Rabbit).

The exception is Jerry, for whom the film borrows the cerebral man-of-action style developed by Guy Ritchie for his Sherlock Holmes films. As any attack nears, Jerry's perception slows to a crawl, while he coolly assesses the danger and consciously thinks out his countermoves. Nobody actually operates that way, but Renner makes the most of the opportunity to deploy a devilish sense of enjoyment at being the nuttiest member of the group. (He is, as the guys explain to Wallis, the most ruthless among them—but they love him anyway.)

Tag takes an odd turn toward the end, and it's one that injects an unwelcome dose of realism into a tale that relies on keeping the real world at a distance. In a story about holding onto youth by retaining the spirit of play, intimations of mortality strike a sour note. Until that point, though, Tag effectively sustains its anarchic alternate reality with enough conviction that, for a while, it really does seem that the game and its underlying friendships might go on forever.

Tag Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Not even IMDb has information about the shooting format of Tag, but it appears to be digitally originated, like most films today. (At some point, we may have to stop calling them "films".) The credited cinematographer is Larry Blanford (Almost Christmas). Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is typical of contemporary productions derived from a digital intermediate: sharp, clear, richly colored with solid blacks, and free of any noticeable distortion or interference. The New Line division seems to have come around to Warner Archive's approach to disc authoring, providing Tag on Blu-ray with a high average bitrate of 34.44 Mbps. Maybe that's part of the reason it looks unusually good.

Tag Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like most comedies, Tag has a front-oriented soundtrack, although the 5.1 mix (encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA) occasionally gets a chance to play with the surrounds, e.g., during moments of "Jerry-time", when the film briefly slows down and shifts to the point of view of the game's most competitive player. Some of the more brazen stunts lead to crashes and impacts that are reproduced with the requisite impact and contribute to the cartoonish atmosphere. The effective comedy score was supplied by Germaine Franco, who has worked on the Kung Fu Panda series as well as other animated films like Coco and The Lorax.

Tag Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Meet the Real Tag Brothers (1080p; 1.78:1; 5:03): Interviews and private video from members of the original ten-man tag team. Some of this footage is included in the film just before the closing titles.



• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2.39:1; 6:20): The scenes are not separately listed or selectable. A title card precedes each one.
• Scene 30: Tapping Therapy
• Scene 30: Walkie Talkies
• Scene 31: Air Bud is SciFi
• Scene 32: Booth of York/Face Full
• Scene 32: Jerry is a Replicant
• Scene 42: Graduation Flashback
• Scene 78: Golfers Get Hit
• Scene 82: Bus Stop



• Gag Reel (1080p; 1.78:1; 8:50): Blown lines, prop malfunctions and digestive system surprises.



• Introductory Trailers: The film's trailer is not included. At startup, the disc plays trailers for Creed II and The Meg, plus the latest Warner promo for UHD, which I call "Superheroes in HDR".

Tag Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tag is harmless, forgettable fun, and despite the odd ending, it's a pleasant diversion for an hour and forty minutes. The film is also an instructive demonstration—among many on Warner's 2018 release slate—that you don't have to spend hundreds of millions to entertain an audience and turn a profit. Warner's Blu-ray treatment is superior and recommended for anyone wanting to add Tag to their collection.