My Review of "Tag"

Tag is a pretty weird premise. It's hard to believe that this movie is based off a true story. Although I didn't want to watch it but the movie kept coming up on Netflix. I got suckered into watching as I always get duped by repeated advertising. Thankfully it didn't turn out to be the bad movie that I thought it would turn out to be.

The movie starts by prefacing the viewers with a Benjamin Franklin quote, "We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing!". It's a very relevant quote to describe the movie. We find out that this group of boys have been playing the same game of tag with one another for the duration of the month of May. They've been doing this for 30 consecutive years.

This is all fun and games but we soon realize that the game is a lot more intricate than we expect. They will all go all out to tag their friends; travel to another city, wear disguises, and even getting hired at companies to infiltrate their targets. As grown men they have access to so much more than they did when they were kids.

I know it sounds like a silly idea but doesn't seem like it could last a duration of a movie. The twist is that their one friend Jerry has never been tagged. That's 30 years of being undefeated. I thought that it was kind of a funny twist to the story especially when they describe the stories of how Jerry has foiled their plans to tag him. He just seems like a mystical figure of a tall tale.

The main character Hogan wants to get the gang together to finally tag Jerry as he found out the Jerry wants to quit the game. One last time to tag the mythical character. Each of his friends are zany and very willing to help Hogan finally get Jerry. They too want to finally give Jerry his just desserts.

When they finally meet up with Jerry the movie goes from 0 to 100 real fast. The action scenes that they make up are reminiscent of a mix of Sherlock Holmes, and slow motion action flicks. It's actually quite entertaining and pretty funny at the same time.

One of the characters that really steals the show is Hogan's wife Anna. She's terribly intense and competitive so she fits right in with the group of boys. Unfortunately for her there's a no girls stipulation as the game was created back when they were little boys. Anna seems the person most into the game than anyone else.

There are a few minor characters that also make for some pretty funny scenarios. The main cast does a great job in keeping the audience engaged and become inclusive to their little game. It helped that they had a reporter that follows them. She's sort of the audience's representative throughout the movie. It's a pretty smart move by the writers of the movie.

You can tell that everyone that was part of this movie had a fun time making this movie. The writers wrote some pretty smart intricate dodge scenarios by Jerry and the way that they executed his escapes were really well done. It's also fun that a lot of the characters throughout the movie are aware of the wild game get absorbed and want to be part of it.

Overall, I would say that this movie was a pleasant surprise that I really didn't expect to like. I don't know why I held out on this movie for so long but I'm glad I finally caved in. I'll have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I don't think I would be able to watch this movie over and over again but for a first time viewing it was quite entertaining.