MOVIE REVIEW: TAG(2018) RATED R

  TAG is an often rude, crude and foul-mouthed comedy about a group of friends who get together every May to play a game of tag. The premise sounds childish and outlandish but to my shock and surprise, TAG works due to the fact that in the ned, the film has what I call redeeming social value. Translation-it has a heart.
    TAG features a very strong ensemble cast that includes Ed Helms (in a very good performance), Jake Johnson (NEW GIRL) as a marijuana smoking jerk(another good performance), Jon Hamm (MAD MEN), Hannibal Buress (whose work I'm unfamiliar with), Annabelle Wallis as a Wall Street Journal reporter (underused here), a scene-stealing Isla Fisher as Ed Helms wife and Jeremy Renner as the untouchable, untaggable friend who reveals this is his last game and is getting married to a snobby young lady (played by Leslie Bibb). There is one other actor that I have to mention, LilRel Howery. He is another actor who is given very little to do and whose character I found to be under-developed. One of the flaws of the film.
  TAG is directed by Jeff Tomsic who has directed a lot of television comedy and makes his mark into feature films with a solid big-screen effort. The script, which is based on a true story (believe it or not) is well put together by Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen.
  TAG is a film that shouldn't have worked. It has an outlandish premise (Grown Men running around acting like children, especially in public places) that shouldn't have worked. It does of one big reason. What I call redeeming social value. The film features characters, some of which are sexist, narcissistic, rude, crude jerks. The film dares to show you the good and bad side of most of the characters, making them, in the end, very relatable. They are redeemable characters despite some of their often shocking and outlandish behavior.
  Let me remind you once again that TAG is rated R for strong language, crude humor, comic violence and sexual situations. Some might be offended, others might find stupid. Others who like crude comedies like THE HANGOVER, BLOCKERS and BRIDESMAIDS might find themselves liking this. In my humble opinion, TAG has what THE HANGOVER and BRIDESMAIDS didn't have-redeeming social value.
   TAG reminds us that we are all flawed human beings who do and say some pretty mean things but in the end, I believe that despite our shortcomings, we are all redeemable.
  I give TAG a solid B+. It's playing now at a theater near you.
SIDENOTE: There is an important element of the story that I did not go into in my review and that is the whole game of Tag. See the movie. It does a better job than I ever could of explaining this very childish game. By the way, that is another, if not MAJOR compontent of the film-lost childhood.