Film
A group of friends from high school hold an annual game of tag, for one month, every year, into adulthood. Taking place any place, and any time within this period, it’s a no holds barred playground contest. What makes this even more intriguing and fun, is the fact this is all inspired by actual events.
Tag is a fun film. and one gets the impression the cast had fun making it. The story foloows the antics of Hogan ‘Hoagie’ Malloy (Ed Helms), Randy ‘Chilli’ Cilliano (Jake Johnson – The Mummy, Smurfs: The Lost Village), Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress – Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Secret Life of Pets), Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm – Baby Driver, Minions), and Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner – Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron) who has as yet not been tagged.
Once news of this on-going childhood games gets out, intrepid reporter Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis – Annabelle: Creation, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) decides to follow the group, and cover this rather unique bond they have. Rebecca’s view of the entire event mirrors what many viewers might have, and that is one of amusement, that a group of grown men could act in such a way. Not only still playing a game from the school grounds, but the level and detail of planning that goes into this annual event.
Let us not forget the main characters themselves, with each possessing their own skills and personality, brought to life the the talented cast. Jeremy Renner for one feels as if he has brought much of himself to the role, prompting one to pause and wonder if he might just narrate some things in his every day life.
Tag is a fun, light-hearted, and feel good film, if there ever were one. A story that is not at all hard to follow, a diverse group of characters, given depth by a well known cast. A story that will not only have the audience laughing, but wondering how they too can create this sort of bond with those closest and dearest to them.
A film most certainly worth watching, and adding to one’s collection, Tag is a brings joy, much as their game it depicts does.
Disc
The disc is of a good technical quality overall, with a fun main feature.
Tag is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.
Video
Video is encoded at a high average bitrate, with no visible artefacts on-screen. There is no visible colour bleed, and colours are vibrant where needed, although the grade does differentiate between past and present. Details in faster moving scenes and dark scenes is good.
Viewers with the relevant hardware or software could scale up to a larger or higher resolution screen, should they wish.
Audio
Audio is encoded at a high average bitrate. Dialogue is clear via the centre channel, with great use of the surround channels when scenes would warrant it.
Navigation
Navigation is simple, and easy to follow. The main menu is static, with a background poster and accompanying music. Menu items consist of text links to their respective sub-menus, and consist of a link to play the main feature, scene selection, languages, and special features.
The scene selection sub-menus consist of six and five large, colour, still thumbnails, for a total of eleven chapters. While these are numbered, they are not labelled, so navigating to a specific part of the main feature might require some guesswork. There is also no chapter listing included in the disc packaging.
The languages sub-menu consists of a text list of audio languages, namely English and English Descriptive Audio. There is also a list of available sub-titles, including English for the hearing impaired.
The special feature sub-menu contains one link, to the single included featurette.
Bonus Features
Meet the Real Tag Brothers – This short featurette gives the viewer a look at the real life persons that inspired the film. This makes the main feature even more enjoyable. A fun look at the bond between these friends.
Packaging
The disc packaging is rather standard, with a poster on the front, with cast listing. The back of the case has a short synopsis, with some small stills from the main feature. There are also the usual technical logos and information one would expect. There are no package inserts in the case, such as chapter listing.
