TAG

Ed Helms     Jon Hamm     Jeremy Renner     Jake Johnson     Hannibal Buress

Isla Fisher     Annabelle Wallis     Rashida Jones     Leslie Bibb

      Five guys are ultra serious about their game, having played it since 1983 when they were kids, convinced that it will keep them young.  And they do seem like little boys playing their macho games. After they grew up, they did restrict it to the month of May, but during that month any one of them—or group of them—could appear at any time to tag someone.  The one who is “it” gets to tag, and then that one becomes’ “it”, just like in the childhood game.

     This particular May is special (and the reason why changes across time), but Hoagie (Helms) rounds up three of them (having no compunction about interrupting a Wall Street Journal interview or even a therapy session), saying that Jerry (Renner) is getting married and dropping out after this year.  Callahan (Hamm), Randy (Johnson), and Sable need little convincing to hop in the car and head to Jerry’s hometown.  The stakes are soooo high because Jerry is the champion who has never been tagged.

     Jerry is the best part of the story, in that he is ingenious in anticipating every move of the conspirators, preparing for them in comedic ways, and—by the way—being a master in what looks like martial arts; he can foil every attack and then escape without being detected.  Renner actually broke a couple of bones in doing his stunts.  He is impressive to watch, and although this is not nearly the caliber of Hurt Locker—for which he is perhaps best known—the role is similar in the character’s canniness and attraction to risk.  It’s certainly different in the mischievous eye of Jerry.

     Other main characters are in roles familiar to us.  Ed Helms is the ambitious achiever who often misses the mark by just a little bit.  Jon Hamm is the suave CEO of a large, successful company.  Jake Johnson is the slightly manic talker with a talent for saying the wrong things.  Unlike these, Hannibal Buress’ character isn’t like his previous roles; here, he is thoughtful, speaks in convoluted sentences, and is more than a little paranoid—a clever addition to the cast of characters.

     Females seemed to have been “tacked on” in stereotypical roles:  the aggressive Anna (Fisher) dying to be a part of the guys’ game and being a female version of a guy.  Susan (Bibb) being the beautiful ultra feminine bride wielding her power behind the scenes.  Rebecca (Wallis), the reporter so intrigued by her subject’s life, she abandons her intended story to follow him on a tangent.  The most realistic character is Cheryl (Jones), who expertly fields two suitors from high school, maintaining her equilibrium and sense of self throughout.

     Tag reflects the backgrounds of the director (Jeff Tomsic) and writers (Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilan) being in television, although they based the story on Russell Adams’ account of the original group of men in the Wall Street Journal.  It plays like an extended sitcom with a bigger budget.  The audience I was with in the screening laughed heartily in the expected places, but I doubt this film will appeal to those interested in wanting comedy to push forward in a wave of creative expression that speaks to the contemporary frame of mind.

A light comedy about a group of men extending their childhood game into macho competitions in adulthood.

Grade:  C-                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE MUMMY

Tom Cruise   Russell Crowe   Annabelle Wallis   Sofia Boutella   Jake Johnson   Courtney B. Vance

     The Mummy is another showcase for Tom Cruise to dominate the action by performing impossible feats, bare his physique, and rescue a beautiful woman, usually blonde.  Here, the story in the beginning casts him as Nick Morton, a soldier supposedly on a reconnaissance mission getting distracted from his duties in the interest of stealing antiquities and selling them on the black market.  Far from being an admirable fellow, he is a thief, having stolen, in addition to artifacts, an archeological map to reach a Mesopotamian (now Iraqi) site that holds antiquities he can sell.  When he ends up having to be rescued by his commanding officer, Col. Greenway (Vance), he lies without blinking an eye. 

     Accompanying Greenway is archeologist Jenny Halsey (Wallis), who is keenly interested in the site (guess where Nick got the map), and insists on exploring it after a bomb made a huge pit exposing valuable artifacts from Egypt (most unusual) in a tomb far from Egypt’s borders.  Greenway sends Nick and his sidekick Vail (Johnson) down into the pit with her—presumably for protection—and gives them only a limited amount of time.  Nick and Chris are like two boys in a candy story trying to nick (pun intended) every bauble they can grab.  Appropriately, Jenny scolds them, but a far more threatening force has been unleashed by the violation of the tomb.  They have unearthed (thanks to Nick’s careless use of his gun) a sculpture of a god that was not meant to be disturbed.

     As background, we are told about an ancient Egyptian ruler named Ahmanet, who made a deal with the god of death, Set, when her father bore a son who would eventually usurp Ahmanet’s reign.  She is punished and mummified for killing her father and his son, but by disturbing the site in the way he did, Nick is now cursed.  The mummy of Ahmanet has risen and has decided that he is her “chosen one”, Set, so she tries to persuade him to join her in death to be a god.  He is not very tempted, but she is able to “get into his head” in a way that propels him to go in directions he does not intend.  It is only through sheer will that he is able to thwart her.

     It turns out that Jenny the archeologist works with a Dr. Jekyll (Crowe) in London, who has grandiose plans of his own.  Nick ends up there when Jenny realizes that he has been cursed, and she wants him to see a doctor.  Here, Nick learns that Dr. Jekyll has actually captured Ahmanet as part of his plan and she is in chains.

     Interspersed in all this are mummies turning into zombies, endless struggles by Nick and Jenny to break free (he’s now become, magically, a more honorable figure) of the curse, with Ahmanet pursuing them relentlessly, seeming to have superhuman powers.  The film ends with a clear-cut set-up for sequels.

     The best part of this film is watching Ahmanet, who is fascinating to look at, eerie and forceful in her actions, and relishing her evilness.  She is abhorrent and beautiful in a surrealistic way, and about the only creative force in the film.  Cruise plays his usual role; Annabelle Wallis is competent in rendering what she is given by the script, and Jake Johnson plays as well as he can his completely irritating character Vail, who is transformed into a zombie.  Russell Crowe can certainly play conniving baddies, but the script he is given here makes his character neither convincing nor understandable because his “plan” is not well articulated. 

     Although there was a low-key applause at the screening I attended, it is doubtful this film will catch the fire that the studio and filmmakers hope for.  It’s no longer interesting to see unending fights, despite the hope for CG effects to elevate them. 

This is an uninspired attempt to revive The Mummy franchise.

Grade:  D+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

WIN IT ALL

Jake Johnson     Keegan-Michael Key     Joe Lo Truglio     Aislinn Derbez

     Eddie Garrett has a gambling problem and sporadically attends group sessions for it.  He’s a major irritant for his sponsor (Key), because for all his big plans to change, little happens, and he doesn’t hesitate to call the sponsor any time of day or night.  His infantile demands and self-preoccupation require strict limit setting on the sponsor’s part.

     Eddie leads a seedy life without a job, scrounging around for any dough he can get his hands on and going through incessant winning/losing cycles.  After a discouraging night (through which he always maintains his optimism), he comes home to find someone in his apartment who looks like he is going to call in a debt.  But he has a strange proposition; Eddie can make $10,000 by holding a big bag for the man while he has a stint in prison, probably about six months.  All Eddie has to do is stay out of the bag and keep it until the man returns for it.  He doesn’t have a job, but when someone asks him what he does for a living, he replies that he is in the “storage business.”

     Of course, this is more temptation than just about anyone—especially a gambler—to stand, and although he wrestles with himself mightily, you can guess what happens and what the bag contains.  In no time at all, Eddie’s persistent optimism that he can use the money and make even more with it gets the better of him.  When he first launches his plan, he blossoms with his wins, becomes gregarious with friends, and even meets an attractive woman who succumbs to his charms. Eddie becomes so desperate he goes to his brother Ron (Truglio), who has bailed him out numerous times.  Ron has their father’s landscaping business and always begged his brother to be a part of it, saying he would have to start at the bottom, but could work his way up to eventually being a partner.  Eddie has always been disdainful, but now he is so desperate, he takes Ron’s offer, and begins doing medial labor.  If he works six months, he will be able to put the money he’s lost back into the bag.

     After a few fits and starts, Eddie is taken by surprise by how much he is enjoying working.  He starts reforming, with his new girlfriend supporting him all the way, even after she learns his earlier free spending was temporary and not substantive.  He stops gambling and begins to think about becoming a family man.  All of this is groovy until the owner of the bag notifies Eddie that he will be getting out of prison early.  Eddie goes to his brother once again, asking him to advance him his salary enough to replenish the bag.  But his brother refuses.

      What will Eddie do and how does this story end?  In a very clever way, but it has an aspect to it that made me flinch.

     Writer/director Joe Swanberg is a favorite filmmaker in his hometown of Austin, and his work is generally well regarded across the world.  His style is easygoing, always with substantive points to make about people and society.  He co-wrote this script with Jake Johnson, his collaborator on Drinking Buddies, and Johnson gives a stellar performance as Eddie in Win it All.  I was especially taken with the brother Ron’s character played perfectly by Joe Lo Truglio, which is a rare characterization of a supportive brother who does/says all the right things to someone like Eddie, with a lot of humor thrown in.  He’s a little corny at times, which is likewise just right.  Debez is an experienced actress from Mexico, so I don’t recall seeing any of her films, but she also comes across as a natural in this film.

A well conceived, entertaining comedy about the rehabilitation of an addicted gambler.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland