Apparently I’ve become the curmudgeon I always thought I’d
never become. I’ve often asked people when they thought the best movies ever
made were. What I’ve found is that while most think it was when they were
younger more and more tend to think of films from the 70s and 80s as the best.
Growing up in that time period I know I’m biased and admit it. But I am stunned
when I see certain movies today and how terribly bad they are. Take for
instance TAG.
The plot of the film is supposedly based on a true story. A
group of friends has had an ongoing game of tag since they were 9 years old in
1983. As they got older the game became an annual event taking place every May.
Hogan "Hoagie" Malloy (Ed Helms) was the last person tagged the
previous year and he has set his goal high this year. That’s because his goal
is to tag Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner), the only player in the game who has
never been “it”.
To do so Hoagie recruits his fellow players starting with
Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm), the CEO of an insurance company. Showing up at work he
tags him and sets in motion his plan for all the members to focus on Jerry this
year. Those members include Randy "Chilli" Cilliano (Jake Johnson), a
perpetual stoner still, and Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress) perhaps the only sane
one of the group. Along for support is Hoagie’s overly enthusiastic wife Anna
(Isla Fisher). Also in the group is Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis) a Wall
Street Journal reporter doing a piece on Bob.
What makes this year’s game more difficult is the fact that
Jerry is about to get married. None of the friends were invited for fear they
would ruin the day with the game. In return for invitations the group must not
play the game at the various wedding functions to take place. They all agree
and then the game begins.
As the impending wedding approaches the group does
everything in their power to tag Jerry. But Jerry is a planner and skilled
athlete and avoids them at all turns. They sneak into his house and he’s
prepared to that possibility. They show up at a function and he’s ready and
waiting with a pre-planned escape route. SPOILER ALERT! As the last chance to
tag him approaches they get a message that the wedding has been postponed only
to find out this is a ruse. The game must go on!
The movie sounds like great fun and the trailers for it made
it appear that it would be just that. The end product is far from it. The jokes
are lame and predictable for the most part. The acting is over the top
throughout the film, especially from Fisher. But there were several things
about the movie that were just not funny.
Keeping in mind that growing up movies like BLAZING SADDLES
and THE GROOVE TUBE provided plenty of things to offend viewers and yet
remained funny. But this film goes beyond that in several ways. The reason they
say the marriage is postponed is because the bride had a miscarriage. Somehow I
don’t find a lot of humor in a woman losing her child. When it turns out that
this was a hoax it made it just as uncaring a concept.
The movie seems fueled by the F bomb as well. Fisher seems
to spout it out every fourth or fifth word and more so when she goes into
tirades about the game her husband is playing in support of him. I understand
that this is becoming more and more acceptable to many (a recent trip to a
restaurant was ruined by 2 young men who felt it was okay to punctuate
sentences with the word while we sat nearby) but its overuse does not make
something funny. What it does is demonstrate lazy film writing.
The film might look great and polished but the end result is
whether or not it was funny. Especially since the movies is promoted as a
comedy. I found that while watching the entire 1 hour and 40 minutes of the
film I found one laugh. At one point the reporter says “This is why journalism
is dying”. That’s it. The single laugh in the film. Sorry if I ruined it for
you but if you want to see this movie for that single line you would have
wasted the rental money.
It seems like more and more comedies are relying on vulgarity
and gross out tactics to get a laugh these days and the more they do so the
less funny they are. They’re no longer shocking they’re just sick. Worst of all
they’re not funny. Consider TAG as one of the un-funniest comedies this year.
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