The first trailer for the upcoming summer action/comedy from New Line Cinema, Tag, is here. Boasting a star-studded cast that includes Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Hannibal Buress, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, Rashida Jones, and Leslie Bibb, the film follows a bunch of ex-classmates who organize a wacky game of tag that results in them traveling across the country. The film is directed by Broad City TV show helmsman, Jeff Tomsic, and co-written by Mark Steilen (Mozart in the Jungle) and Waiting director Rob Mckittrick.
Tag is loosely based on a story published in The Wall Street Journal in 2013, concerning 10 friends who continuously played the game of Tag (with fundamentally the same rules) over the course of 23 years. The game started as something the group would do during morning breaks while they were attending Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Washington. Unexpectedly, it carried on as they moved forward in their respective lives, and even after they began working for a living and starting their own families. The gang's commitment to the game took them to different states in an effort to not stay "it" for as long as possible.
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A teaser for the Tag trailer was released online yesterday, and now the full theatrical preview is online in all its wacky glory. Check out the trailer for Tag above, then read on for the film's synopsis below:
For one month every year, five highly competitive friends hit the ground running in a no-holds-barred game of tag they’ve been playing since the first grade - risking their necks, their jobs and their relationships to take each other down with the battle cry: “You’re It!” This year, the game coincides with the wedding of their only undefeated player, which should finally make him an easy target. But he knows they’re coming…and he’s ready. Based on a true story, the New Line Cinema comedy “Tag” shows how far some guys will go to be the last man standing.
It's difficult not to get excited about a comedy that not only has a good mix of actors involved but also has a fresh premise such as Tag. And it's a bonus perk knowing that this ridiculous thing has been going on in real life, played by real people for more than two decades now. While it's unknown whether the flick is mining specific plot lines from reality or if it's just lifting the basic narrative set-up for the movie, it's a wonder how intense the "stunts" for the film are considering that Renner actually broke both his arms shooting the flick. The injury is something that a lot of people originally thought was due to Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers 4 given that they're superhero blockbusters, but apparently the actor suffered the mishap on the set of a comedy flick.
Comedies haven't been doing well at the box office in the last few years, and most of them didn't do critically well either. Even those that are top-billed by A-list stars like Scarlett Johansson's Rough Night and Dwayne Johnson's Baywatch retelling struggled to find their audiences. Perhaps an ensemble cast such as Tag could win the masses without trying too hard to be funny. In fairness, the trailer poses some potential without having the generic quips and punchlines. If anything, the movie already has something going for it since seeing grown-ups so motivated in playing a kid's game is pretty humorous.
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Source: New Line Cinema
