Blu-ray Review: Tag

STUDIO: Warner | DIRECTOR: Jeff Tomsic | CAST: Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, Hannibal Burress, Jake Johnson
RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2018 | PRICE: DVD $27.73, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $22.99
BONUSES: featurette, bloopers, deleted scenes
SPECS: R | 100 min. | Comedy | 2.35:1 widescreen | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/Dolby Digital 5.1 | English and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie  | Audio | Video  | Overall

Adults playing kids games was a premise that surfaced earlier in the year with Game Night, a decent comedy in which the stakes got higher and a bit scarier as the game went on. Based on a true story that ran in the Wall Street Journal, Tag is a farce that sets its sights on a group of longtime pals who have played tag for years and tend to take a kids’ pastime to ridiculous heights.

Jeremy Renner (Wind River) continues his impressive run as an actor tough to pigeonhole as the champion of the group of tag masters—a fitness enthusiast who has remained untouched over the years of playing.

The problem is that Renner is about to get married and he doesn’t want his game-playing bros to ruin the party. Of course, men being boys, they will have none of this, so buddies Ed Helms (Chappaquiddick) , Jon Hamm (Beirut), Hannibal Burress (The Angry Birds Movie) and Jake Johnson  (No Strings Attached) plan to continue the numbskullery, even if it means derailing Renner’s big day. Coaching all along is Helms’ wacky, hyperactive wife (a scene-stealing Isla Fisher of Nocturnal Animals fame) and following the fellow’s antics is an inquisitive Wall Street Journal reporter (Annabelle Wallis, Mine).

The cast is game for the physical demands the Tag storyline and debuting director Jeff Tomsic has in store for them. (In fact, Renner broke both arms during the shoot).  And audiences were fairly game as the film as it brought in a decent $55 million in under-the-radar fashion.

So, as one note as the premise of Tag may sound, the film is actually fast, funny, frantic and, at times, surprisingly poignant, hitting its bromance target with a solid “high five.”