On The Screen – Tag – 9/8/2018

“It Is One Of The Blessings Of Old Friends That You Can Be Stupid With Them”

Ralph Wald Emerson

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

George Bernard Shaw

It never ceases to amaze me how things – so very often – seem to happen for a reason.  Sue and I stayed in last night.  It had been a busy week – trying to pack 5 days of work into 4 – and I was feeling a little under the weather.  After dinner, we wound up on the couch with a cup of coffee and decided to browse through our Xfinity choices.  For no pre-determined reason whatsoever, we chose “Tag” and settled in with the most minimal of expectations.

Let me start with this – I don’t know how the movie was reviewed and I have no idea how it did at the box office.  I don’t care.  We both wound up really, really enjoying the show.  It’s a superb cast – I’ve always liked Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms and Jon Hamm and Hannibal Buress has long been one of my favorite comedians.  The actresses – particularly Isla Fisher and Leslie Bibb – were superb and managed to provide some of the movie’s most memorable moments (I’m still chuckling to myself – thinking about Isla Fisher wanting to water board one of Jeremy Renner’s employees AND her line – “suck my tiny ginger b*lls” – I enjoyed her in the same way I enjoyed Marissa Tomei in “My Cousin Vinny”).

It’s relaxed, slow burn funny – the humor coming from both the insane idea of 5 grown men stepping away from their normal lives for a month every year to play a kid’s game like tag (this is actually based on a true story that was reported in the Wall Street Journal – front page above the fold) and from watching how the men transform so effortlessly into these blended adolescent adults who throw themselves into the game without reservation or any care or concern for what those around them might think.  Both of us found it to be fun and funny and totally uplifting and went to bed thankful that we’d stumbled into it.  I’d recommend it to anyone interested in a quiet and happy home movie night.

One suggestion – do NOT turn this movie off until you’ve seen the credits.  I mentioned that this is a true story and they actually end with clips of all the old guys actually playing the game over the years.  I honestly think that may have been my favorite part of the movie and it also helped make a personal connection for me – likely one of the things that made the movie such a joy.  It reminded me that I’ll be headed to Austin soon to spend the weekend with 3 of my oldest and very best friends – watching the Horns play, drinking and eating way too much and spending hours telling all the same stupid stories and all the same atrocious lies.  It’s something that I’ve done – in one way or another – almost every year since 1987.

I don’t know how others feel but I’ve always been pretty selective about the way I use the word friend.  I’m surrounded by many, many people whose company I enjoy and whose presence in my life I’m grateful for – but I have very small group of people that I refer to as friends.  To me friendship, is a product of years of shared experience – often shared challenge – shared trust based on the confidence that the person in question has seen you not at your best but at your worst and still values you – loyalty tempered by a willingness to let you know when you’re acting like a fool AND have your back until you step off the ledge – a connection that can survive years of separation and allow you to effortlessly slip right back into a relationship that feels as comfortable as an old shoe.  Of the very small number of people in my life I can say those things about, almost all of them have two things in common – The University Of Texas and Sigma Chi:

So…Travis, Kevin, David…I can’t wait to see you guys.  I’m hoping to get the Horns a win but – if we lose – seeing you guys again will be more than enough.  I can’t wait to see your wives again and catch up on everything that’s happened over the course of the last year – know how your work is going and how the kids are doing .  I’m looking forward to telling all the same, stupid, 35 year old stories and laughing at all the same old stupid jokes.  It’s within the realm of possibility that I’ll drink too much.  Please make sure – as you’ve always done – that I don’t act like an idiot in public or that I don’t stumble into the pool and drown.

Hook ‘Em and In Hoc!